Alternative Path
by ASunxMoonE
Summary: What would happen if you changed the past? Can you even change the past? Some mistakes could never be removed, but if there's a will, there's a way. He only wanted to be alone with the femme whom he loves, yet... Starscream has to face the truth, which makes him break down and escape, letting everyone else behind. Starscream X Arcee, characters not only from TF: Prime
1. Chapter 1

_**Alternative Path**_

* * *

 _ **He remembered**_

* * *

"I said don't come any closer to me!" The squealing voice came again and the red optics' light which could be seen in the darkness got somewhat dimmer. Then, they got smaller for a second, before they got bigger again and went back to the young femme's purple optics. She flinched.

The young, thin Autobot put her claws on her face and looked at her palm, realizing she was leaking energon.

"B-But… You're the only one who can help," she whispered and knelt down, "there is literally no one who could help me right now. My comrades were all captured and I was left all alone. I'm still weak and was never meant to be anything special… I mean, look at me! I look pathetic with those stick legs and …"

The red optics in the distance shone brighter and got to a higher position, meaning that the Decepticon stood up. Soon, she heard steps from the 'Con coming closer to her, so she lowered her head.

"You impotent, childish fool…" a dark, sinister voice came into her audios and her spark started to race. She knew it was a bad idea to go searching for him.

The young 'Bot didn't want to respond.

"Your words fill me with anger and a kind of pain you could never even imagine... To try to convince _me_ into helping you and your "comrades"?! I can't blame you, you probably never heard of the things they had done to me in the past…"

"I did, sir! And… I'm sorry. But they didn't mean it! No, I heard you even got accepted into the team and had a Spark-"

"Silence!" The Decepticon yelled and stopped walking. He was silent for a cycle.

"Silence," he quietly repeated, "I do not care for your comrades in the slightest bit. Actually, I hope they all perish at the hands of that wretch and the know-it-all one-eyed freak! Why did you come here, child? To give your life to me? Does your existence mean that little to you?" His voice sounded like he was mocking the scared Autobot, "After all of this, I would actually join _them_ rather than you."

"Yes!" The Autobot yelled, "Yes, it does!"

The red optics widened.

"Without them, I don't have anything to live for! I remember my parents dying when I was at a young age. I was primarily raised by two medics, who were always fighting, a wrecker, who couldn't stand me at all, and a tall wannabe Prime, who was obsessed with rules and lessons! But still, they are my family. I was always different and always stood out, as I wasn't able to transform into a car, or a truck, or a motorcycle. They mocked me for my tiny being, for my skinniness… I knew I didn't belong there, and so did they. I'm probably the weirdest Autobot ever alive, so why would I matter?!"

"Aaargh!" The mech hiding in the shadows shouted and the silvery colored Autobot heard a strange sound, so she looked into the direction where the Decepticon was. The Decepticon's optics' light went out for a moment as he crashed to the floor. He soon reopened them and faced the Autobot. Energon was leaking down the Con's right faceplate.

"Lies… all lies," the 'Con sinisterly said and snuffled, putting his big servo at his forehead, "why didn't they tell you…? Why…?"

As the 'Con began whispering, the young femme realized he really was crazy, like they said he would be.

"I should have known from the start! I should have… should have," he eyed her again, "Don't you know who you are?! _What_ you are?! A person like you should stand tall against everyone and anyone, and should definitely _not_ be playing a weakling!"

"Why does that matter?" The Autobot calmly replied, which made the 'Con in the shadows even angrier.

"Because _you_ matter! Why won't you understand?! Not knowing one's fate is one thing, but not striving towards it is another! Are you that foolish not to understand the clear, laid out pattern for you?! Use that big brain of yours!"

"Sir, I-"

"Don't you _sir_ me, child! If you could only see that-"

"You don't even-"

"That I'm trying to show you-"

"You will never be able to-"

"That I'm not just an ordinary-"

"How could you know?! Who are you, and why are you trying to reason with me if you clearly-"

"Now will you stop cutting me off, you punk, I'm your elder and also-"

"I just wanted you to help my family! Th-They were always there for me after my biological mother," she waited for the sinister Cybertronian to cut him off, but continued as soon as she realized that he wasn't going to, "passed away in front of my very optics… I was just a helpless sparkling, I couldn't… I couldn't prevent her from…"

The Autobot stopped, bent over and burst into tears which were illuminating the dark room they were in. Steps came closer to her, but she didn't watch out. The deadly Decepticon came in front of her, but much to her surprise, the mech fell to his knees. The room got silent again.

"Her death was not your fault, fool. No one ever told you, correct?" The Decepticon quietly and sadly asked, putting his big servo at the Autobot's shoulders, "Well, if you believe in the words I am saying, raise your head up and look at this spitting image to feast your eyes upon the person who is responsible for your mother's death," he purred and the Autobot gasped and widened her optics. The Decepticon stood up as he realized that the Autobot's body was getting tense. Just as he did, he received a cold glance from the young 'Bot, who immediately after seeing the 'Con widened her wet optics.

 _ **Stellar cycles before that…**_

"I still can't believe you actually remembered... I thought you didn't care for human stuff, yet you did remember to count the fragging 365 Earth days just to prove that you won't forget about the day you became an Autobot", Arcee happily said and snuggled closer to him.

The silver seeker wrapped his servo around the small femme and smugly smiled.

"It's for you, Arcee. I would never hold back when it's about you," he purred, "also, I hate to break it to you, but it's actually 365 days, 5 months, 48 minutes and 46 seconds."

The blue femme lowered an optic ridge, but smiled at him.

"You smartaft", she sighed and he chuckled.

"Your language, Arcee. It's not even funny anymore", he said and she smirked.

"Then why are you still smiling?" She asked and made a snowball from the snow she was sitting on.

"Smiling, frowning, it's the same thing", he said and faced her, only to get hit by a snowball right into the center of his face. He growled and pushed her with his shoulder so she fell on her back, silently yelping. He put his long, thin servos left and right from her body and then knelt above her to make sure she wouldn't stand up. He wanted to get closer to her to kiss her, but she playfully pushed him away and smiled even wider.

"Come on, Scream. I'm not in the mood for your games right now."

"I know. You're never in the mood", he said and looked away from her optics, shrugging his broad shoulders. Then, he smiled showing his dental plates and faced the wonderful blue femme who was lying on the floor. Her optics were even more illuminated than usual by the few stars which weren't covered by huge clouds sailing through the black night sky. Small, fragile snowflakes were dancing with the wind and landing on top of them to decorate them a little, as they were the only things that weren't decorated that day.

"Christmas", Starscream suddenly said and Arcee looked at him, "I finally remembered that word again", he said and she sweetly smiled, "happy Christmas."

"Merry Christmas", she corrected him.

"Close enough", he said and fell to the side so he could lie next to her.

"How did you make them let you travel back to Earth?" The femme silently asked while looking at the few bright stars above them. She remembered the moment they confessed their love to each other and sweetly smiled. It was at the exact same spot they were on right then. She had never been that happy with another mech and she was sure he loved her just as much as she loved him, although they were picking fights all the time.

The seeker widened his optics, put his weigh on his servos and sat up to look at the cityscape.

"Oh, look! The puppet shop! Want to go steal some of them?"

Arcee narrowed her optics as she realized that he was trying to avoid the conversation. She sat up as well and looked at his long, nervous face.

"We both know you're afraid of them, Starscream. What are you trying to hide?" She asked and Starscream realized that her tone was getting angrier.

"Remember the time we first kissed? Well, you kissed me, of course, I was just like 'what are you doing' and you were-" he looked at her angry face and dumbly smiled, like he always did.

"I love you, dear", he purred.

Her lips were hung and one of her optic ridges was up.

He heavily sighed before starting the quick explanation: "I wanted to surprise you by getting at this planet just at Christmas time, as I know how much you love this blue, weird planet. I wanted to take some time off as I am on probation since the last Christmas now, but Ultra Magnus said no, so I had to ask Knock Out to open up the Space Bridge for me, but he was too busy grooming himself so I sneaked by him and opened the portal up by myself. Of course, I told Ratchet about this but he didn't want to approve it, so I walked back to Knock Out and told him to cover for me. He was once again busy with… whatever, but he agreed to help me anyways. Then I dragged you into the portal without telling anyone we were already gone, so, yes. We are here right now, and _you,_ my dear, are looking at me with a really, _really_ angry face."

"You are such an idiot. Why did I ever agree to come with you?" She asked and turned away from him, making him mad.

"See? That's the kind of behavior I can't stand. You always complain about me and the things I do for you, even if you do like them."

"Of course," she turned back to face him, "you can't do that! They worry about us!"

He narrowed his optics.

"No, they just don't trust me enough. You don't have to hide it from me if it's obvious."

"Why are you always so negative? Screamer, I just…"

His optics suddenly turned sad and, for some reason, cute. She bit her lower lip and heavily sighed.

"They can't trust you if you keep running away all the time. It's not like they get a chance to trust you. They only see you when you're on your shift."

He frowned and looked away from her. He watched the snowflakes falling for a moment. He knew he wasn't the greatest part of the team, but he did do everything he could. It's just that he couldn't get used to the environment he was living in as it was nothing like the Nemesis.

"I can't get used to it. If I don't get punched three times a day, I just can't do well. They got me messed up, back at the Nemesis."

"Are you still thinking about the past? Starscream, it's like you enjoyed being a Decepticon, while we all know you hated being part of it. Megatron beating you up, tossing you around and using you as a floor mat, being spied at every second of your life by Soundwave and being mistreated by Shockwave and his Predacon pets? It must have been a dazzling experience."

"Interesting choice of words, dazzling… I still see stars in front of my optics every time I open them."

"I mean, if you want to return to being a Decepticon, you are free to go. Perhaps you'll be happier when you won't have to do anything what we say. Just know that I won't follow you, then", she stated and attempted to stay up and leave him alone, but he pushed her with his shoulder again and thus she ended up on her back once again.

"You really are a persistent and somewhat pessimistic femme… I never got what I liked about you," he said and got above her again, looking into her bright blue, scared-looking optics, "or _loved_ about you," he purred and sharpened his claws, putting his index claw under her small chin, so that she wasn't facing him anymore.

"Maybe it's that charming smile of yours… maybe the perfect structures or the arrogant, deceptive behavior. Whatever it is, I feel compelled to stay here, with you. So don't you go into that direction."

"You'll never change, am I right?" She silently asked and he petted her right faceplate with the same claw.

"You know your life would never be so interesting if you didn't have such a cunning, deceptive and intelligent Decepticon in it."

She pushed his hand away from her face and clenched it. She looked at him once again and he smiled adorably, like he knew what she wanted to say.

"I still don't believe you about that scientist thing", they both said in the same time and smiled at each other. They were looking into each other's optics for a moment, but soon, their smiles started disappearing. The silver mech got closer to her face and gently smiled again as the blue two-wheeler froze completely. He chuckled.

"Are you feeling helpless?" He asked and she widened her optics.

"What the frag are you talking about again?" She asked and rolled her optics, looking away from the mech whom she loved. He seemed way too passionate for her taste while asking that question.

He suddenly burst into laughter and touched her forehead with his. Surprised, she overheated a bit.

"Scream? You alright?" She worryingly asked and cupped his face. He slowly opened his optics and smiled even wider.

"I just got the most brilliant idea ever."

She was just staring at his weird behavior.

"I love you", he purred, slowly blinked and touched her lips with his, but parted from her immediately. She just kept staring at his adorable, overjoyed face that was making him look much younger than he actually was. As he just kept looking into her optics, she pulled him down and returned the kiss, much to his surprise. Not seeing in front of himself, he accidentally cut her servos as his claws were still sharpened, but that didn't seem to bother her at all. However, it bothered him. Starscream suddenly pushed her away and quickly got up at his knees. A slight blush was on his faceplates. He wasn't used to this as he rarely got the chance to touch her lips. She looked at the confused mech and he cleared his throat.

"This was… something… Let's just… move on", he said and she frowned.

"What is it this time?"

"The fact that I'm still no Autobot, perhaps?" He asked and lowered his optic ridges, "We shouldn't be doing this. It's… not what I was hoping to do today. Or anytime soon."

"Or ever?" Arcee asked and he chuckled to confirm her statement. She rolled her optics but smiled as she knew the seeker was secretly extremely shy to begin with anyways.

He helped her get up and they both sat at the edge of the metal ledge, holding servos and watching the few stars that weren't covered up by the light clouds, which were slowly passing through the landscape. After a minute, Starscream looked away from the beautiful landscape and got his optics locked at the two-wheeler, whom he wasn't sure if he hated for many stellar cycles, or loved for many stellar cycles before the event X. He never cleared it out before.

She suddenly looked at him as she realized that he was awkwardly staring at her with his mouth half-opened, but she just sweetly smiled and turned her head towards the church of the city again, though she was still looking at him for some time.

" _Seriously, why do I like her so much? It's against the Decepticon codex to love someone like this and I thought I had love out of my head, yet still she managed to destroy my ego. How? Why? When you think about it, it's so dumb and frustrating, but I can't keep myself from looking at her. Just… a few more seconds."_

He didn't stop staring at her.

 **JUHB YV JUDB**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Just to Be Able to Talk to Her**_

* * *

„You're telling nobody, you understand? We could have some serious issues", Starscream said as he touched the blue femme's shoulders. She smirked and tilted her head.

"I've already got a serious issue with me here. I wouldn't stand other", she stated and the former Decepticon frowned. They were staring into each other's optics for some time until the femme rolled her optics and harshly removed the cold, long claws from her shoulders.

"Fine, fine. I'm not going to speak a word of it", she said and the seeker nodded his head and happily smiled. Hand in hand, they headed towards the Space Bridge, ready to face another normal day of their lives.

* * *

He was standing in the middle of the room, awaiting the lovebots. His servos were crossed on his chest and there was a frown on his snow white faceplates. He felt mistreated, used, dumb for not telling anybody about the trip to Earth. As no one was coming out of the greenish portal, he heavily sighed and looked around himself, barely managing to keep his optics open. Around him were tools which were slowly collecting dust on the floor as no one needed him to do something with them. In the center of the room, right next to him, there was a huge table with all kinds of gadgets on it. In the corner of the black room, there was a berth on which a small weapon was resting. Next to the berth were computing devices that were usually glowing harshly even at night, but the others had forbid him to leave it on to save some electricity, like they were in the need to save it. He turned all the lights off himself, because it was his duty to do that as soon as everybody went to sleep, just this time, there was an exception. Actually, two of them.

"Why do I even bother with this stuff? Is it my problem? No. Do I still help them for some unexplainable reason? Oh, you bet I do. And why? To face the punishment together with them if we get caught? Oh, brilliant idea, Knock Out, brilliant idea. Anything else?" He was talking to himself, but stopped and faced the ceiling, which had a lot of stains on it because of Starscream's overreactions the moment they brought him in to heal him. No one remembered to clean that up, and Knock Out had decided not to do it because it would ruin his flawless paint job.

"No. Not. At. All", he finished his thought in a silent voice and frowned.

He had agreed with them that they would arrive in exactly five megacycles, yet they weren't showing up. It's not that he was expecting the couple to get back exactly at that time, but he was expecting at least some kind of respond from them if they don't return in exactly _nine_ megacycles.

He did worry for a cycle before, but he stopped worrying as soon as he remembered Starscream's odd expression on his faceplates and his witty remark: "Covering for someone means to be knowingly responsible for the information that person gives to you, and there are two rules in this wide world. The first is never to give out all of the information".

"I fraggin' hate this guy," Knock Out suddenly said and leaned on the big gray table. Just as he said that, the lovebots came through the portal, holding hands and looking at each other with delight. Knock Out's expression was full of disgust, however.

"Could you, perhaps, keep that to yourself and try not to act like a giant goof?" Knock Out stated and Starscream glanced at him and proudly smiled.

"Are you jealous, perhaps?" Starscream sinisterly asked and Knock Out put his claws over his face.

"I wish, but instead of that, I've been waiting for you two for _nine megacycles straight!_ Can you imagine what I could have done with my life in that time? I agreed to cover for you this once, when nobody else wanted to, and yet you decide to keep me awake and deprived from my beauty sleep?" He said and slid to the floor, sitting down at it, "I just hope I won't start graying all of a sudden. Or even worse, rusting!"

Arcee and Starscream looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

"Anyway, guess I'll be going to my chambers", Arcee said and stretched, silently yawning. Then she kissed the silver seeker on his cheek and started walking away from them, slowly, like she wanted to make the seeker look back at her.

"Good night", she silently said an astrocycle before she entered her room.

"Night", the seeker returned and leaned at the table, staring at the door that closed itself automatically as soon as she got through it. Then, he looked at the red mech who was struggling not to fall asleep. His optics were, however, already shut.

"Isn't she simply amazing?" He silently stated and pressed the switch to turn on the lights, "I'm, like, the happiest mech there is."

"Starscream, don't just go lighting the medical bay up like this!" Knock Out yelled and jumped up at his feet, both servos on his forehead. He angrily looked at the seeker, who had a baffled expression on his faceplates, and heavily sighed.

"In other words, we are not supposed to turn on the lights at this time," said Knock Out grumpily, "my optics are burning… Starscream-"

The seeker yawned and walked into the corner to sit at the berth on which he was once being medically treated. Knock Out just stared and calmed down as he realized the silver mech wouldn't listen to him anyways.

"Imagine if someone had found out… You know what would they do to me?!"

Starscream looked at him.

"To us?!" Knock Out corrected himself.

"As long as you keep your mouth zipped, everything will be fine. Trust me," the seeker said, "no one will know we went off. And no one would blame you because those oafs trust a 'Con like you".

"A… 'Con like me?" Knock Out asked and crossed his servos again, "What are you implying? I've been here for a much longer time than you", he calmly said and Starscream silently laughed.

"You? Come on. You don't really do anything around here except of what you did back at the Nemesis as well", Starscream explained, a smug smile appearing on his faceplates. He was in the mood for mocking the medic right then.

" _Excuse moi?"_

Starscream shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, your behavior… it's still as… _sadistic_ as before. Thought you would change after a while by being surrounded by those idiots."

Knock Out narrowed his optics.

"I can't see your point of view, Starscream. If I was as sadistic as you're telling I am, I wouldn't be talking to you right now, but drilling you a hole into your spark chamber. Also, why are you always calling them idiots? They accepted you into the team, remember?"

"I'm not here for them."

"Then for whom? Arcee?"

Starscream shrugged his shoulders and the red mech frowned and rolled his optics. There was only silence for a few minutes, and none of them moved.

"You will never stop thinking about the past, it seems. Why are you so focused on what was, if there's still a whole life in front of you? You're wasting your time; it's not that you could be a Decepticon again. In fact, no one can. They're gone. Done. Finished. The only ones left are now going havoc on Earth, but those are different from us. And Bumblebee and his team will capture them in no-time."

"You just don't think right, Knock Out. Think about it: Decepticons rising up again, doing what they want and when they want. There's no one to boss us round, and if there is, we disobey him, like we always did. Stealing, fighting, participating on human car races we're not supposed to go to", he quickly stopped and glanced at the mech who suddenly seemed interested in his speech, "freedom, Knock Out, freedom. That's what we want, isn't it? Being on top of the world… Being allowed to hate, to love… does that sound so bad?"

Knock Out stayed silent, so Starscream grinned.

* * *

"No way", he silently said and widened his optics, "Screamer is… betraying us? No, that can't be… I have to tell Arcee about this. There's no other way, although she probably won't believe me. I have to warn her", Smokescreen silently said and rushed back into the dark hallway.

* * *

"You lovesick seeker… All that to be allowed to talk to her without having to hide from the others? You'd do everything for her, wouldn't you?" Knock Out asked and sweetly smiled, like he finally started to understand the seeker's will. As Starscream realized that, he turned away from him and lied down on the berth.

Knock Out leaned at the wall and crossed his servos in a fashionable way yet again. He looked back at the ceiling and turned the lights off again, so that only the red optics' lights of them were illuminating the room.

"We couldn't leave this place even if we wanted to… They wouldn't let us. You know that."

Starscream mumbled something that the red mech couldn't understand. Knock Out looked at him, tilted his head and smiled.

"And we both know that we're doing just fine here. As long as you don't screw up, everything will stay that way. I don't want to sound like 'a real Autobot' right now, but I guess I wouldn't even want to leave this place. It's so much better than when we used to stutter in fear in front of our lord Megs."

The red mech slowly walked to the door as he wanted to leave, but before that, he turned around once again and faced the seeker: "That, however, doesn't mean I don't miss watching the way Megatron beat you up every time you did something wrong", he stopped for a second and then chuckled, "guess that does make me a sadist after all."

Just as he said that, a small metallic weapon came flying towards his face.

 **VSRLOHU?**


	3. Chapter 3

_**The Entrepreneur**_

* * *

" _Yet another day to endure with that Ultra Magnus… Ugh… I can't believe that the other 'Bots can stand his speeches every day. Why would they actually need to listen to the same things every day? It's not that we don't have our own business",_ the seeker thought. He looked away from Ultra Magnus who was standing in front of the other Autobots like always, looking firm. Starscream couldn't stand his behavior, although he secretly appreciated the way he was trying to make him a better person, although failing. He looked into the femme's direction and smiled a little, but she didn't look back at him. She, like everyone else, was focused on the big blue 'Bot. After realizing that it wouldn't be nice if Magnus spotted him not listening to him, he straightened himself and began paying attention again.

"Cybertron is still in need of help. Everybody is back on the planet and they live their lives happily, yet threats are still all over the planet. Decepticons are hidden somewhere among us, and our job is to protect the Cybertronian kind from any harm. It has been stellar cycles since the last Decepticon was seen, and we imprisoned him as soon as we could. He will not be a threat any longer. Since he did say that he was not alone, though, we have to stay focused on our mission and we mustn't show mercy to them now. Even if they did change, they committed crimes for which they have to pay. It is not my wish; this is the will from someone above us. We still have the upper hand on-"

" _No can do. Can't listen to him anymore,"_ Starscream looked away again as he thought that, " _it's not that I ever cared about Soundwave or Shockwave… or anyone else, but I can't listen to that. He's talking about it like we were the only ones to take lives, while there were two sides of the war. The luck turned on their side and that's why they won, not because they were the 'good ones'. We weren't the bad ones, that's for sure. Also, I can't shake the feeling that his speech might have something to do with me",_ he thought and looked out the window.

The scenery he saw was a blue sky and a few high buildings that were touching it. Lights were emitting from the ground because of the festivals that were going on outside. Starscream remembered the way their home planet looked before, without anything or anyone on it. Yet now, when everyone was here again, it seemed too crowded for his taste.

Suddenly, he heard a knock and immediately looked at Ultra Magnus who stopped speaking as well. The room went quiet all of a sudden, as Bulkhead and Wheeljack who were whispering something all the time suddenly stopped as well. Everyone got scared as their leader stopped talking.

"What?" Ratchet asked as he didn't hear anything.

"There was a knock", Ultra Magnus stated and Smokescreen rolled his optics.

"What?" Ultra Magnus asked as he saw the way Smokescreen reacted. He smiled.

"N-Nothing Ultra Magnus… sir… I was just expecting something more… I don't know…"

Ultra Magnus narrowed his optics.

The knock repeated.

"Someone's knocking at our door" Ultra Magnus said and Starscream widely smiled.

" _This is my chance to get away from here!"_

The knock came again.

"I'll go. You just continue with your speech, oh, brilliant leader", Starscream stated and quickly eyed Arcee, who had a smug smile on her faceplates.

He got a glance from Ultra Magnus.

The mech quickly turned and headed for the door. As soon as he left the main room, he stopped rushing and started walking slowly, like he had all the time in the world. There was nothing on his mind. He didn't have anything to say, he was just walking, peacefully, happy that he didn't have to listen to the blue leader's insulting speech no more, although he failed to realize that the speech wasn't insulting towards him at all.

The knock repeated once again, only this time, it was a little longer.

Starscream silently growled.

"Well, that's some persistent visitor", he whispered.

The same knock pattern repeated and Starscream got annoyed, so he rushed towards the door. He stopped for a second, wondering if he should open the door or not, but his thought was quickly dispersed as the knock came again. Furious from how annoying the knock was for him, he pressed the button for opening the door.

"What?!" Starscream yelled and looked left and right, just to see that no one was facing him. After staring into the distance for a few seconds, he frowned as he thought that it was a joke.

" _Hey… I'm not that small…"_ he thought and falsely coughed for attention, like all the professionals did.

Starscream looked down, only to realize it was a familiar face, holding a weird device in his hands.

"Hello, dear Cybertronian fella, what would you say if I claimed that the future is now thanks to technology? You'd say I'm crazy, right? Well, think again! I present to you the _Express Cube Catalyst!_ _TM_ _"_ The mech raised his head and widely smiled, showing his uneven dental plates, "Have you ever asked yourself this question: 'Why would I have to wait for my energon cube to melt?' Well, with the E.C. Catalyst TM, you can now melt that cube three times faster than before!"

The Cybertronian put the device back into the tray which was located on his chest.

"Amazing, isn't it? I offer a great variety of financing options." He closed his huge optics because of the wide smile he had on his face.

Starscream just stared blankly at him. He did need that device before, when he had to melt the red energon he found, though.

"Ugh…"

"Not that type of person?" The 'Con quickly continued and snapped his fingers before reaching for another device in his open tray, "Got it!"

"No, wait, I don't want-"

"Are you still angry about the fact that the war ended this way, perhaps?"

"Yes, actually."

"Then I have the perfect merchandise for you! Although it's actually forbidden to sell these… I will gladly make you an offer," he said and looked into the seeker's optics, raising his right optic ridge, "I have here more than three thousand deluxe weapons just ready to be fired. Those babies are more durable than Megatron's processor, I tell you", he proudly whispered.

"And if you're not that type of person as well, I've got something special just for you. I didn't even think of selling it, but you seem to be the knowledgeable type. I was once on the far planet of Earth, you know. Business with the defenders of Cybertron, and whatnot. Beautiful planet, but the variety of items… meh. On the way home, I stumbled upon something so beautiful and mysterious; I couldn't take my optics of it… a mysterious relic from the planet Earth!" He stated and took out a small metallic device that had a few stains on it. It had two long horizontal holes on it, a long cable and a switch on the right side. He held it up so proudly that Starscream almost felt sorry for him.

"Found it in salty liquid, that relic. Can also be treated like a souvenir, I guess", the purple and yellow colored mech continued.

Starscream nodded his head and bit his lower lip. Not only that he never wished to have anything to do with that planet, he also knew the "relic" the entrepreneur was holding wasn't worth anything to him.

"Swindle, that's a toaster. It's definitely not a relic."

Swindle's smile disappeared and he took it down to look at it, tilting his head.

"Huh." He said and kept staring at the toaster he was promoting a few seconds ago.

"What are you doing here?" Starscream asked and Swindle put the toaster back into his tray.

"I _live_ here," he enthusiastically said, "also, I should be asking _you_ this question, Starscream."

"No, I mean… You weren't caught yet?"

"Caught? Me? With all those gadgets I have, I couldn't be caught even if I wanted to. I track the positions of my former customers and try to sell stuff. It's… harder than it sounds like, actually. Especially when someone lives with the Autobots that saved the planet. You know what risk I did by coming to you? I could have lost everything in my personal storage system…"

Starscream widened his optics, but then narrowed them. Swindle widened his big optics as he feared nothing good would happen to him.

* * *

"Starscream's taking a long time." Ratchet stated and Smokescreen and Arcee looked at him.

"Maybe it's a friend of his?" Bulkhead asked and Arcee widely smiled.

"Friend?" She sarcastically asked.

Ultra Magnus remained calm. He didn't trust the former Decepticon whatsoever. He wanted to, but after what he did to them, he just couldn't, no matter how much he tried. He remembered showing him the Core Explorer and telling him every detail of their base. He remembered the way Starscream mocked the others and pretended not to listen to anyone. He remembered the pain he did to Arcee when he left them. He wanted to be just like Optimus and give him another chance, but he was too afraid to confirm him membership. He was afraid of losing a team member, or more.

Suddenly, the sound of a closing door echoed in the room, followed by footsteps and a voice that wasn't familiar to him. The Autobots gathered up and formed something like a circle, just in case of an attack.

"Hey, l-let me go… Just don't be so hard… It's fragile! No!" Someone was shouting and Ultra Magnus took the giant hammer off his back. He was still carrying it around.

Soon, Starscream came into the room, clenching a smaller 'Con's servos on his back. The Decepticon didn't even struggle. The team widened their optics and Starscream smugly smiled.

"Do you believe me now?" He asked and threw Swindle at the floor, in front of the lot. Ultra Magnus came a step closer to the salesman 'Con and Swindle looked up.

"Hello, ladies and gentlebots! What would you say if I claimed that the future is now thanks to technology?" he tried and widely smiled, showing his uneven dental plates.

* * *

Starscream helped Ultra Magnus throwing the Decepticon behind bars. The con hit the wall and fell down on the dusty floor. The cell got closed with electrified bars which appeared after Ultra Magnus hit a button next to the cell. Swindle got up and looked at the Autobots, looking furious. Starscream smugly smiled.

"Who is he?" Ultra Magnus asked as Swindle turned his head away from the slim silver mech.

"A Decepticon called Swindle. He is known for black marketing and, as his name suggests, swindling. He is a hustler, an intergalactic weapon dealer."

"An entrepreneur, actually", Swindle stated and Ultra Magnus narrowed his optics at him, but then returned to face the silver seeker whose smile couldn't fade from his faceplates. He seemed very proud of his accomplishment.

"We will leave the prisoner here, for some time. When we'll get ready to find the other Decepticons as you suggested, soldier, we'll use his insider knowledge. Till then, he will remain locked up."

Starscream just smiled wider. Ultra Magnus slightly smiled as well and they walked off, together. Swindle just kept staring at them until they both got out of his eyesight. Then he heavily sighed and looked at the ceiling, narrowing his optics.

"Using me for an ugly plan like that… he's still a Decepticon. That's bringing back some memories, but…"

He smirked and half-closed his optics.

"Soon, I won't need memories anymore", he whispered and looked at his wrist, on which a strange little device soon appeared right above the stasis cuffs he had on.

"Swindle… is that you?"

As the voice came into his audios, he looked around himself and tried to locate the source of the deep voice. He soon came to realize that it was coming from another cell right next to him.

"Oh… isn't that one of my loyal customers…? You too, huh?" He silently asked.

"Predacons weakened me. It was only logical for them to locate me and put me in a cell. I am actually a bit surprised that they did not put me in a stasis cell. It would be more intelligent of them to freeze us up, instead of locking us in an unguarded cell."

There was silence for some time.

"I have been locked in this very cell for two stellar cycles. I do not know what was happening during the time I was spending in here."

"Nothing much. Stock prices rose up drastically, though."

Silence again.

"How did they capture you?"

"I made the mistake of selling my merchandise to someone who never paid on time. How could I have known that that actuator joined one of the most important Autobot teams on Cybertron?"

"That was not a logical way of thinking. It is no surprise that you got caught. You would have gotten caught sooner or later."

"Later would have been nicer." Swindle said and looked up at the small camera that was capturing his movements and speech.

 **EULQJLQJ VHAB EDFN**


	4. Chapter 4

_**The Nemesis**_

* * *

"Arcee, you've gotta believe me. I saw it, I heard it", Smokescreen said and looked into the blue femme's optics. Her servos were crossed on her chest and she also had crossed her legs as she was sitting on the berth in her room. She wanted to go to sleep, but Smokescreen suddenly ran into her room and closed the door shut, like something was haunting him. He had a serious expression on his faceplates and seemed to be in a lot of stress that moment, but Arcee wasn't letting the tall blue mech ruin Starscream for her. She subconsciously still wasn't over the fact that Starscream betrayed them that other time, and she would very much mind repeating that happening.

She glared at him and then rolled her optics, looking at the clean ground.

"That's a serious accusation, Smokescreen."

"I know, but… I heard him say that he isn't glad he's here. He was talking to Knock Out and they were spitting on our name!"

"Spitting?" Arcee asked and Smokescreen smiled.

"Sounded way better in my head…"

Arcee rolled her optics and stood up so she could look taller, but it didn't help very much because she was still ten feet away from his height. That didn't change the fact that Smokescreen was afraid of her.

"Starscream changed, Smokes. I don't care what he's saying; you know that he's a little… rash with his words. He is quirky as well. Whatever he said, I'm sure he didn't mean it that way."

Smokescreen looked at the door and then back at her.

"I actually like that high-heeler as well, but… This night, I saw him going towards the chamber where the prisoners are located, two megacycles earlier. Alone."

"So what, he _is_ a member of us now", Arcee protected him.

"Yeah, but… For what reason did he go there?"

"I don't know, okay? Shockwave was his 'comrade' at one point, perhaps he wants to talk. And that other guy… I don't know that one. But it could be that Starscream knows him as well as he knew what he was like."

Smokescreen stopped as he saw that he was upsetting her. He crossed his servos and looked away once again. Arcee smiled at that.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. It's not that he will call all the Decepticons on the planet to plot a revenge against us", Arcee said while still smiling and Smokescreen shrugged his shoulders and smiled back at her.

Just as she said that, the sky they could see from the window located right next to Arcee's berth suddenly got bright and soon after that a huge explosion came. The ground started shaking and both of them tackled the wall to protect themselves from the impact the explosion had. The berth in the room changed its position.

"The coincidences, though", Smokescreen shouted as Arcee tried to delete the thought of him betraying them yet again. The explosion soon faded, but was followed by another huge one. After that, a familiar voice starting shouting right in front of the door. He fisted it and scratched it to make Arcee know she should let him in. The mech sounded very scared and was wimping as the door didn't go open when he wanted it to go open.

Arcee rushed to the door and managed to unlock it as the room still shook, and the silver mech who was hitting the door to get in fell face first into it. He moaned and stood up, suddenly hugging Arcee. She froze immediately and Smokescreen looked away because he felt awkward staring at them. Starscream closed his optics and put his huge palm at the back of her head, gently stroking her.

"Thank Primus you're safe", he whispered and bent over to touch her forehead with his. She was still just staring at him. He smirked, but then realized Smokescreen was in the room as well, so he frowned and straightened.

"What's he doing in here?!" He loudly squealed with his slightly odd accent.

Another explosion came and the ground started shaking again. The whole building started to rumble and to quiver. The seeker fell to the floor, and so did Smokescreen. Arcee managed to stay up by holding the doorjamb. All her stuff fell from the shelves and soon, the shelves fell down as well. Cliffjumper's horn, which she had taken with her after her job on Earth was done, hit the cold hard floor as well.

"What the frag was that?!" Arcee shouted after some time as the ground didn't stop shaking. Starscream pushed his body up and managed to crawl towards the window, hitting Smokescreen in the process. He pulled himself up and looked out of it.

"I th-think the question should be… is that", Starscream stuttered and Arcee looked out of the window, only to realize a giant matter was slowly crawling through the air towards them. It was as huge as the whole Autobot base and it looked just like the Decepticon ship Arcee and team Prime had to fight too many times before peace finally came to them. In terror she almost lost consciousness and fell to the ground, putting a hand on her forehead. Starscream looked at her with a sad look on his faceplates, but didn't approach her as he anticipated that the situation is going to get worse. The huge ship fired a missile and, right in front of the seeker's optics, blew the old Maccadam's Old Oil House up. Another missile destroyed a few homes. Cybertronians came out of the buildings and started scurrying all over the center, screaming in fear.

He looked back at Arcee and saw her terrified face, so he proceeded to crawl back to her. Just as Smokescreen decided to get up at his knees, he was once again hit by the silver mech who was crawling faster than animals of the planet Earth.

He gently picked her up and pressed her underweight body to his chest. She slowly looked at him with half-opened optics, just to see his worrying face.

"Don't worry about me, Scream… The ship, it'll…"

"I'm not ditching you. I don't care about that. It's all for you, Arcee", he purred and she weakly slapped him.

"That's what weakling's say", she whispered and he got closer to her.

"Ugh… Sorry to mess your lovey-dovey scene up, but… the ship is going towards us!" Smokescreen said and Starscream angrily looked at him.

"What? You seriously think I didn't know that?"

Smokescreen stared at him.

"Do you think they're targeting the weak homes of unimportant Cybertronians and some random old bar owned by a guy I can barely understand or one of the strongest and most important Autobot forces of the planet?!"

Smokescreen shrugged his shoulders and Starscream silently growled.

He wanted to stand up and head towards him, but a missile flew directly towards them and ended up blowing up a massive part of the wall protection. The heavy ceiling fell straight down at them and, in a matter of astroseconds, they got buried under tons of titanium walls and dust.

The ship stopped right above them. Everything turned silent. The dark blue sky was now gray because of the vast amount of dust and rubbish that covered the surrounding area. No stars, no lights, just a huge copper colored ship with spikes on its edges floating above the base that they worked so hard on getting built up. Everyone kept their mouth shut as they didn't want to get uncovered. The feeling of dread was in the air, though the ship's operators didn't come for that. The ship brought a force field along, but it was soon clear they didn't need one after all, as nobody dared to attack the massive ship. All the strong Autobots and cops weren't there to help the population right then. After all, the cops' base blew up as well and the ones remaining safe and sound were on a mission. The air smelt like burnt metal and acid combined. Soon, the residents of the place backed down and fled towards the north. The operators of the ship didn't care; they just kept floating above that one poor Autobot base, which was practically turned to ashes. The first thing attacked was the prison they had in the base, which was on the top floor. Now there was no electricity, grids, security cameras, nor Cybertronians held captive.

The sky was gray, and stayed like that. The clouds vanished as well.

* * *

" _Arcee… Arcee, can you hear me…?"_ she heard a squeaky, yet soothing voice in her audios and soon tilted her head so her right faceplate would be illuminated by the light in the morning. Every day she used to wake up like that, wake from her dreams that were more and more often not about the war. But this time, there was no light, just warmth.

She managed to open her optics and saw a pointy chin in front of her face.

"Stop blocking the light, Screamer, you know I love it more than anything…"

The seeker frowned as his optics went away from her.

"There… is no light."

She suddenly remembered what happened, which explained why she was underneath the seeker's body. She remembered the ceiling collapsing, her spark beat quickening, the fiery lights in the distance and finally the seeker hugging her tightly before the ceiling crashed right at them, covering them in dust and heavy metal. She just lowered her head, completely forgetting to thank her seeker for saving her life yet again.

He somehow managed to move a few huge metal scraps before pushing it away from his body. Then he released the femme and she stood up, helping him to remove the scraps. She soon did and saw scenery which was again familiar to her. The whole place was slowly burning up, and the only thing that she heard was her beating spark and the flames eating up their beloved home. Starscream got next to her and wanted to hug her, but he got discouraged and pulled his servo back to himself, walking away from her with a heavy spark. He knew how much that place meant to her. All the memories she shared with her family and all the pain that they experienced together, all gone. All her precious stuff… and the light that would wake her up from her sweet dreams. Her sweet, sweet dreams.

He looked back at her only to realize she was staring into the huge flames that were sucking up the remains of the base and there was only one thing stuck in his mind. The feeling of despair.

"How did they manage to… disable our force field?" she asked after a certain amount of time and Starscream opened his mouth and raised his index finger up, but soon frowned and put it back down as no words came out of his mouth. His head was seemingly deprived from ideas as well.

Then, everything went silent again. He didn't dare to approach her and see her sad face, so he remained in the back.

"Where are the others?" she suddenly asked and Starscream bit his lip. She didn't hear him say anything, so she assumed she already knew the answer.

"We have to find them", she determinedly stated and looked back at the baffled seeker. She slowly walked over to him and stopped a foot away from him before standing a few seconds without moving any closer to him. Then, she ran straight into his servos. The seeker remained baffled, but hugged her back anyways, without showing any will.

Neither of them said anything. They remained completely silent as the dancing flames were getting smaller, but also closer to them. Arcee snuggled closer to his chest and felt his spark beat which was faster than hers, like he was more afraid of what happened. They stopped being aware of their surroundings. Then, without any warning or any signs, a tentacle of some sort came right at them and pounded them so hard that they went straight to the ground, yelping. Arcee couldn't even look up to see what was happening before a sonic wave hit them both, parting them and paralyzing them in the process. Arcee tried to resist it and look at the silver mech whom she loved one more time, but soon fell unconscious.

 **WKH VDPH ROG VKLS**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Once a 'Con, Always a 'Con**_

* * *

" _As for the femme, I'm not so sure. He said we should keep her in the main room for some time before our plan goes on. By the way, have you seen him? He was supposed to get here sooner… This is going to outbalance the going of things."_

No answer.

" _Great. Well, what do we do if she wakes up? Huh? We haven't discussed this yet."_

" _Wakes up? He delivered a deadly hit, you moron. She's not going to open her optics again."_

Arcee flinched and writhed. Then she blinked and half-opened her optics to pay closer attention to the familiar voices speaking in the back. She looked at the gray floor she was lying on with her hands clenched to her back and secured with stasis cuffs. She couldn't find the energy to stand up without the help of her servos and without making any sounds, so she decided to stay lying on the unclean floor. Her vision was blurry, but she could see the entrance to the room and the hallway as the door was open. The voices were coming from there and were getting closer.

" _Don't joke around. She's not that badly injured, she mustn't be. She still has to function properly… for the lord demands her safety."_

Arcee widened her optics.

" _Do we have to say 'the lord' again? I mean, he did disband us and left us alone on Cybertron… Just flying away as the lights were dancing above us? Well… above me, anyway."_

" _Yes… I still can't stand him as well…"_

" _It was part of the agreement. We ought to be thankful for our release."_

" _Well, I was never…"_

" _Nobody cares."_

" _Right… So… huh… When is he going to return?"_

No answer.

" _Let's just hope she doesn't wake up? Oh, by the way, I do have this nifty-"_

" _Nobody cares."_

" _I've got the ability to-"_

" _NOBODY CARES."_

Arcee heard a squeal.

" _OK. I'll check on her. You stand right here and do not leave, understood? Cause if she sees me and…"_

He stepped into the room and the first thing he saw were her traumatized optics staring into his. He could tell that she was barely keeping herself up and that she had a hard time keeping her emotions hidden from him.

She looked at him from helm to toe before she hit her head on the floor, collapsing. Worried because of what might happen to him if she wasn't well anymore, he rushed over to her and knelt down. He didn't help her up or anything, he just stood there looking at her without an expression on his faceplates.

"Here we are again… On different sides, it seems, my dear", he said and turned her around to take the stasis cuffs off her, just to rid her of the extra pain the cuffs were providing. After that he attempted to stand up, but the femme suddenly woke up and pushed herself up, head butting his chin so that he had to leap away from her. He growled in fury and looked at her, only to realize she was running straight towards him. Unable to dodge her attack, she pushed the Cybertronian she thought to be a 'Bot against the wall, pulled her right blade out and threatened him by holding it up against his neck. He got scared, but didn't do anything because he knew she wouldn't do anything to him. She still stared into his bright optics before she saw equanimity in them. That is when she broke down and removed the blade from him before falling down yet again. She managed to stay sitting, although her servos couldn't really handle much pressure yet.

The room went silent.

He slowly pushed himself away from the wall, crossed his servos on his chest and crossed his legs, looking at her. He didn't know what to say as she trusted him and was his friend, before. To him, she still was one, but he knew she didn't feel the same.

"Where is he?" she silently asked and he sighed.

"Who?"

"Starscream." She stated and looked at his white faceplates which were looking at her in a stern way. "Spit it out."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. No need to be rude here."

"Knock Out! What did you do to him?!"

"Me?!" Knock Out argued and looked away from her, trying to conceal his worried expression. "I didn't do anything wrong in my entire life. Actually, you did more harm than I ever will", he turned towards her again and stopped for a moment.

"What did you do to him?" he asked in a harsh tone.

She narrowed her optics.

"Why did you do this? We were supposed to be a team! We were supposed to live in an era without evil trying to rule over the world! And now you come in and sell us out, just like that!"

"What was I supposed to do?!"

"You uppish, feebleminded, shabby looking, nerve-racking disgrace of an Autobot! No, Decepticon, I should say! Delivering someone close to you on a silver plate to Megatron!? We could have fought together against him, as a team!"

"Megatron?! How did you- Never mind. Arcee, you don't understand. Please, calm down and let me explain everything to you."

"There is nothing to be explained! You betrayed us and sold us out! Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if you're going to throw us down the ship while it moves!"

"Please calm yourself, or I will have to-"

"We found him!" A voice came into the room and stopped Arcee's and Knock Out's fight. Soon, two Vehicons came into the room and brought a scratched and hurt skinny Cybertronian with them. His head was lowered as they were dragging him towards the femme who was just staring blankly at the seeker whose wings were bent, to assure he won't try to fly away. There were stasis cuffs on his hands so he couldn't try to attack them. There was a big dent on his chest and his lip was cut. Without even giving him the chance to look at his surroundings, he was thrashed at the floor and got covered in dust which spread into his leaking cuts. His systems shut down as he crashed to the floor and loudly yelped. One of the Vehicons approached him, only to kick his side and then leave him on the cold hard ground. The seeker clenched his hands into fists, but realized that he couldn't do anything, so he just gave up and exhaled, closing his heavy eyelids and relaxing his claws.

"Starscream!" She shouted and crawled towards him, throwing her servos over his tight neck which was leaking energon as well, "Why do they do this?"

As she whispered that, Knock Out clenched his hands and immediately left the room, leaving them alone in the dark without any supervision.

Soon, her optics started to get wet although she knew the seeker wasn't done yet, but Starscream grabbed her servo and pulled her closer, without saying anything. She stopped sobbing immediately as she knew it was irritating the seeker even more. She knew he was upset about everything that happened, yet decided not to talk about it. He sat up and looked at the ceiling, then all around the room they were in without even a faintest expression on his doings whatsoever.

"Starscream, you're leaking", Arcee suddenly said and Starscream looked at her and smiled, making the energon on his lip slide down. As they stared into each others' optics, Arcee attempted to get closer to his face, but the seeker raised his chin up and frowned.

"Don't you think I would know that?" He silently said and stood up on his shaking legs, straightening himself like he didn't get beaten up a moment ago. Like the pain didn't bother him at all.

"Well, I've been through worse. You might recall the serious beating I took before you and your team found me."

As he said that, Arcee remembered the fact that her only wish was to be with him and change his ways of approaching and solving situations.

"They are so dumb. Leaving a former air commander in the cockpit of a ship... wow. If this isn't convenient than I don't know what is."

She shrugged her tiny shoulders before Starscream turned around to face her again.

"If that didn't kill me, nothing will", he elaborated to the previous thought and sweetly smiled as she smirked.

"You almost did", she sassily said and crossed her servos which were freed from the stasis cuffs. Starscream just laughed it off and she narrowed her optics.

"Yeah, but then you came and started to cry for my revival, so Primus decided to bring me back so you could deal with me for the rest of your life."

"For the rest of my life? Huh. I can always change my mind, Screamer, whenever I want to. There is no obligation."

"There is no obligation", he repeated in a high pitched voice and she narrowed her optics again, but didn't frown. It reminded her of the time she was stuck with him on Earth and could do nothing but fighting with him. Times had changed since then, but the fact that he was slowly irritating her every time he said something stupid, which happened a lot, didn't go away.

Then he squealed because of laughter.

"Like you could ever let me go", he silently said and walked towards the door, slamming it with his shoulder a few times, but it seemed to be stuck. Someone must had hacked the door system.

"I could, but I would feel sorry for your pathetic little aft then. That's just the type of person I am", she got all cocky and Starscream rolled his optics.

"Excuses, excuses", he stated and walked over to the control panel to take a look at the switches he didn't see in a long time.

"What excuses? I couldn't be happier if I didn't have to drag you along with me… I just feel… chained up, without any freedom."

Starscream proudly raised his chin up and widely smiled showing his even, bright dental plates.

"Oh, don't lie now! You loveit!" He said and started pressing some random buttons, but nothing happened except of reveling locations of Autobots and some random _letters_ popped up as well. She stood up and approached him.

"You're just imagining things, Scream."

"You're just playing smart, Cee", he answered and she smirked.

"I never granted you permission to say my nickname. You'd have to be someone special to me to say that name", she was acting badly.

Starscream rolled his optics and got dangerously close to her face an astrosecond as she said that, making her flinch and stop every movement. He couldn't believe that she still didn't want to admit that he meant more to her than her 'family' ever will. They never changed and never stopped being themselves and having their own truths and ideals. Arcee was a rightful Autobot, preserving piece at Cybertron, and he was a troublemaker, a realist who would never change his deceptive behavior. No matter where he was, he would always be a Decepticon, and he knew Arcee already realized that. As they were smiling into each other's optics, blue light and red light combined and their sparks' heartbeats aligned. Their pupils widened. She was an Autobot. He was a Decepticon. No matter how much hate they put in into the gap between the two organizations and worldviews, none of them would have existed if there would have been only one ideal and only one truth. And the odd feeling they would get every time they stared into each others' optics for far too long wouldn't exist as well.

"Why do you keep denying the fact that you love me?" He silently whispered and Arcee just stared at him. She didn't expect the conversation to go that way.

"I-I'm not denying anything, it's just that-"

"You're afraid of what is ahead of us, aren't you?"

Arcee didn't answer; she looked at the floor instead.

"When I first realized that you'd be the femme of my dreams, I didn't want to believe it as well. But you constantly kept bumping into me, seeing all the things that I had done. That made me mad and confused… and left me wondering if my calculations were wrong or right. I calculated the all the possible outcomes of the war and even predicted your time of arrival. I had everything planned and that is why I was able to free you that one time from Airachnid's web, if you might remember."

"You… Already?"

Starscream smiled and got even closer to her.

"I was able to see you before everything went down as well", his voice quivered, "that made me believe on."

"For how long-"

"The first time I saw your optics in the light. When you were held captive by us together with 'you know whom', when you almost broke my servo and tied me up to that cold hard berth."

"That dumb smile was actually…"

Starscream slowly nodded and looked away from her, feeling embarrassed her just told her the whole truth about his stalking nature.

"Why are you telling me this?" Arcee silently asked and wrapped her servos around his throat again, making him nervous, so he accidentally touched another switch on the control panel. And just like that, he ruined everything as that switch happened to be the emergency switch, which opens the glass panel from the cockpit. Without even having the time to end their conversation, they and half of the equipment in the cockpit _plus_ the door got sucked into cold vacuum, floating towards what other planet than Earth. As the door got off, the three spies that listened to their conversation flew right towards the hole which led to black nothingness. The _three_ spies were a red speedy car, an evil 'Con who spent stellar cycles on an orbiting satellite and a skinny, stick-legged flyer.

Starscream hugged her as they were getting dangerously close to Earth's atmosphere.

"I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life with you. I just wanted you to know that", he said and hugged the femme whom he loved tightly. She still felt embarrassed, yet couldn't help but to hug him as well.

* * *

Back on the ship, a shadowy figure approached the control panel without any problems and shut it close.

 **EDFN IURP WKH VKDGRZCRQH**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Unlikely Spies**_

* * *

" _I don't know if I'll be able to do this. Keeping my mouth shut will be tougher than I had expected",_ he thought as he was looking on the big white round moon which was glowing especially bright that night. Or maybe he perceived it that way just because of the fact that he wasn't on his planet anymore. He was far, far away from it at that moment. He had no clue where the others landed, but he was glad that he didn't fall into pieces as he entered the scorching atmosphere. Luckily, he ended up falling into a lake. Unluckily, the lake was very muddy and thus got his paint covered in mire.

" _What a great way to start the trip here. Getting separated from the tiny team, getting your paintjob undone having to spy on someone you don't hate, having to spy on someone you hate… although…"_ he turned around to see huge trees covering the dark green hill which was covered in muddy puddles. It must have rained before. The trees were very old, that's why they were higher than the trees he had seen before. Perhaps it was because of the fact that the landmass wasn't inhabited by anything else then the flora and fauna of the huge forest. Thick treetops were covering the sky, which was painted in a completely black color, behind the trees, and the tree trunks weren't allowing any sort of light to pass through them. The treetops were greenish colored, with spots of yellow at the bottom. Taiga. The air was fresh and clean, somehow different then he remembered it being on the planet Earth. As he looked back at the water into which he fell a few megacycles ago, he saw dozens of gray hills scattered around the scenery like someone had played with them and forgot to clean up afterwards. Being a biology lover, he stopped for a second to appreciate Earth's Mother Nature, as opposed to their Mother Technology. He took a deep breath to relax, but stopped in the middle of the process as he remembered his mission and got angry again. He turned around to face the trees which looked like they were racing to reach the sky in height and frowned. As much as he wanted to go search for his teammates, if he could call them like that, he knew it wasn't possible for him.

" _I'm not gonna lie… I don't dare going into this tree maze…"_ he thought as he knew if he'd step into the forest, he was going to get lost on his own. He didn't bring any gadgets with himself. It was just him and the beautiful but harshly cold nature that surrounded the red mech.

* * *

He was lost and couldn't see a thing. Someone would say because there was no light between the trees, but actually, it was just because he was totally scared. It blocked his vision and his mind, also reducing his chance of finding anyone else as he forgot he could get out of the mess he was in easily. He started running as soon as he saw creepy, purple optics staring right into his ones, right next to him. She had been watching him rest. The mech quickly stood up, started running as fast as he could and was screaming in a high pitched tone while running. The femme couldn't catch up to him.

He stopped as soon as he realized that he didn't know where he was anymore. Scared of what might happen if he wanders off too deeply into the forest he stopped and started looking at his surroundings. Huge trees, more huge trees, thick trees, even more trees, trees everywhere. The grass underneath his feet was very tall and he quickly figured no one had been at that place for a long time. In the middle of the small gap between the trees were two tightly placed dirt roads which led to even more trees on which odd looking plants were sleeping. The creatures of the forest were singing a soft lullaby and wolfs occasionally cried in the distance. Sometimes, a bird would chirp. In the distance, there was sound of water current.

"Huh. That's some messed up place…" he sighed while recovering from running. He placed his big, sharp clawed hand at a tree to lean on it.

"Phew. That was some ugly scarecrow", he said and laughed a bit, as no one else laughed at his joke. Then he sighed and looked up, seeing nothing except more trees. Then he put a finger at his comm. link and said: "Hello? Is… is anybody listening?"

"You forgot to turn the comm. link off when you last contacted me. Which was ten cycles ago!"

"Why didn't you tell?" he asked as he leaned his back on the tree.

"I wanted to know how long it would take you to notice that you're still being listened to. And you failed."

"Ten cycles?!" he squealed and widely smiled, "that's a new record!"

Silence on the other side of the communication link.

"So… err… Why did you contact me again?"

"You contacted me, you fool!"

"Oh, yes. I remember."

He could hear some random words being whispered over the comm. link, but knew if he asked, he wouldn't get the answer.

"So", a sigh soon came into the leaning 'Con's audio, "where are you right now?"

"Um… at Earth."

"… I know that! You just told me you landed in a tree top three cycles ago just before you started screaming like a little sparkling! My audios are still leaking energon… Warn me the next time you're attempting to do this. Or was it one of your stupid little pranks again?"

"Nope."

"Where is your exact location?"

"I don't know."

"How could you not know?"

"Was I supposed to?" he asked and slid down the tree to sit on the green grass.

"Yes, yes you were. I can't pinpoint your location, the connection is somehow disturbed. Try flying higher."

Then it got to him. _Flying._ For some reason, he completely forgot he was able to do that.

"Yeah, I'll try doing that. Skywarp out", he said and put his finger off his comm. link.

"Still on, Skywarp."

He tried again.

"Still on."

He tried another time.

"Why did he decide to put you in the Decepticons? You can't even-"

He finally managed to turn the communication link off and remained silent for a few nano-cycles, before shrugging his shoulders and cutely smiling.

"Much better", he stated, transformed and rose up into the air while looking at the plants' dance as he set off. When he finally came through all of the treetops he had to pass to get to the clouds, he playfully soared into the skies and started to loop around the clouds which became small particles of water as he came closer to them. After the time he took to regain his air maneuvering abilities, he got bored and stopped in the middle of the sky and just levitated there for some time. After a few nano-cycles, he vanished without a trace.

* * *

"You'll be fine in no-time, I promise", he silently stated and kissed her scratched forehead. She just nudged his face away from hers with her weak servo, turning her head away from the silver mech whose optics were getting dimmer. He grabbed the big pile of long algae he pulled out of the water when he fell into it and started covering the femme's wounds she got from rolling down the cliff she fell at. Her whole body was covered in bruises, dents and cuts. He remembered emerging from the ice cold water and seeing her fragile frame rolling down a steep hill.

"You took quite a beating by falling down that stony cliff… I'm surprised you're still alive", he looked into the starry sky and showed a faint smile before looking back at the hurt femme whose body was illuminated by the thousands of stars shining down upon them, "bruised, but alive."

"You'll take quite a beating if you don't shut up, Screamer. I'm warning you", she silently said, but Starscream heard her comment and smugly smiled.

"I'll be bruised, but alive."

"It must have looked funny, me rolling downhill", she stated and he looked at her with a worrying expression.

"It was not."

He suddenly straightened and raised his chin up, looking into the distance. He remained so for a few seconds before looking back the beautiful femme who was looking up. Starscream tilted his head and sweetly smiled at her and then laid down right next to her, so that his helm was touching hers. She didn't complain. Both of them were just gazing at the night sky for some moment without looking at anything else. She soon felt her spark twitch as the seeker gently put his huge hand on her tiny one, adjusting his long fingers between her short ones. Her spark started racing, although they did that hundreds of times. This time, it felt differently. It felt special. It felt like they had never done that before. She quickly looked at his hand placed on hers and caught a short glimpse of him staring right at her optics. She suddenly felt uncomfortable as she thought their helms were a bit too close. The seeker raised his servo up and pointed at something in the sky.

"See those stars? The seven stars aligned in that particular order?"

Arcee nodded.

"That's the big dipper. And what luck!" Starscream shouted and Arcee looked at him and softly smiled as she saw how amazed and passionate Starscream was just because of stars that were only giant, lustrous burning masses to her.

"You see the constellation right above us? The conspicuous one! It's _Orion_! Isn't it beautiful?"

"Orion…?" Arcee silently asked and Starscream's smile vanished for a moment as he remembered that she missed the previous Autobot leader.

"You miss him… don't you…?"

Arcee half-closed her optics, but smiled. Starscream saw that it was artificial, though.

"It's fine. I heard that he's alive… it's just that I was hoping he'd remember us… or visit us, if even once…"

Starscream smirked.

"Well, his loss. I tell you, if he doesn't even care for this team here, he doesn't even care about anyone else. And he surely doesn't deserve the title of a prime."

Arcee narrowed her optics at him and turned her face so that her forehead touched the side of his head. Starscream flinched and dumbly smiled like he always did.

"Let's… just continue with the star gazing, shall we?" he asked and Arcee rolled her optics, but smiled and looked back at the black sky.

Soon, Starscream frowned.

"I… honestly wanted to see the _Scorpius_ constellation…"

"Why?" Arcee asked.

"Well… I've always been the antagonist type of person… the one who roots for the bad guys to win… just… a habit of mine. But you'll never see _Orion_ and _Scorpius_ in the same range…"

Arcee smirked.

"If you know Earth's stories, tales never end with a bad ending. The good guys always win."

Starscream shook his head.

"Not always."

Arcee looked at him questionably and he smugly smiled.

"Story time. This is the mythological legend of a mighty hunter named Orion, just like the constellation we are looking at right now. It's also slightly romantic, which is a little disappointing for me, but, if you're into that kind of stuff… Anyways, the tale is from Greek and Roman mythology, yes, humans made this tale up, and it involves Orion, who was a hunter and was but a puny human and Artemis, a Greek goddess of the moon. Orion was a shy giant who didn't like being with other people, so consequently, he moved to a large deserted island where he could hunt and fish. He was big and burly and lived for nothing else than hunting and fishing. He happened to be nocturnal, just like the animals he loved to hunt. So, at night he would stalk his prey, and at daylight he'd sleep under a giant tree just like this one."

Arcee looked up and realized that they were really lying underneath one of the biggest trees she had ever seen. Starscream smiled at her and continued.

"Life was great to him as he was living his dream. He was out there, slaying beasts of all kinds, but also had a secret admirer, who was a great moon goddess. Every night, Artemis guided her moon chariot and she would jump down to the ground to be with her unsuspecting lover, but she had to hold back because she knew that would get her into a lot of trouble because her father was Zeus, the king of all the gods. She was ignoring her duties as the moon goddess, but, much worse than that, she was in love with a son of man, which was unacceptable for gods. And Zeus wasn't really happy with that too. She was stranded in the sky night after night with the moon and the magical flying horses she had, unable to meet Orion. But one night, as Orion was hunting a herd of wild boars, Artemis couldn't take it anymore and headed down to his island to meet him eye-to-eye. And, of course, they fell in love right away. Orion quickly gave up on being a hermit and Artemis changed out her royal robes and put on hunter's orange, hunting with him for the rest of the night. When dawn approached, she jumped up the moon chariot and raced it to the horizon. The next night she halted the moon in mid-sky and joined her new love for another night of hunting and this would repeat several nights, but eventually, Zeus found out about his daughter's behavior through the godly grapevine. He decided to stop the affair and hatched a scheme. He arranged to have Orion killed during the day and make it look like an accident. A giant scorpion would be dropped on Orion's island and fatally sting him while the hunter was asleep, thus eliminating his daughter's temptation. The day of Orion's demise came as the scorpion crawled into his camp. Nobody knew it, but Orion had a security system and his loud mockingbird sounded the alarm which woke the hunter. Orion bolted up as the scorpion attacked. The battle lasted for megacycles. As the evening came, the hunter had the scorpion in headlock and had just about broken its neck, but as the lovesick Orion saw Artemis rising with the moon in the east, the scorpion managed to break free and sting Orion's neck. He died whiting cycles. Artemis raced to the scene, but she was too late. As the killer scorpion made its retreat, the moon goddess grabbed it by its tail and flung it so far into the sky that it became the constellation _Scorpius_. Then she returned to the slain Orion and wept over him for megacycles and megacycles. Finally, she cradled his body into her arms and flew off to the sky, and after she reached the perfect, high spot for him, she gently tossed him up and thus turned him into a bright constellation. She also made sure that Orion was on the opposite side of the sky from the scorpion that assassinated him. And that's why, my dear Arcee, I can't see _Scorpius_ in the sky right now", he said and frowned. As he looked to the side, he saw Arcee staring at him like she had seen a ghost.

"What?" he asked as she didn't stop staring.

"And there I was, thinking that you didn't care about human culture at all."

Starscream frowned and looked away from her, saying: "I do not! I just… liked the story as it had a great ending. Love, loss, giant scorpion… Who wouldn't love that?"

Arcee smirked as she knew him far too well to believe what he said, so he rolled his optics and turned to face her, so that they were both facing each other. Their lips were just a few inches away from each other.

"Perhaps I _was_ interested into it before, but…"

"Mmm", Arcee murmured, nodded and smiled.

"Mmm", Starscream repeated and shook his head into both directions.

"Stop acting, Seeker", she stated and tried to push his chest away from her, but he was a little too much for her left servo to handle.

"Stop acting, Seeker", he repeated in a high pitched voice and made the femme frown.

"You're impossible", she stated.

"The possibility to say impossible is possible, so it is, indeed, possible."

There was a cycle of silence.

"Get fragged", she stated and the seeker showed a stupid-looking grin on his face. So stupidly looking, in fact, that it reminded Arcee of the time with Cliffjumper yet again. She lowered her optic ridges and looked into his optics. His grin faded and she softly smiled as she was looking at the wet grass beneath them.

"Hey… Scream… You remember the time when we were at the freezing cold snow… all alone, a stellar cycle ago?"

"Sure, _wheeled thrash can_."

She looked at him for a second and sweetly smiled before looking down yet again.

"When I said that the grin you had on your face when you got tied to that berth was because of the fact that you were scared… That face you showed then…"

"What?"

"Nothing. It's… just now that I… know the truth, um…" she stuttered and Starscream sweetly smiled at first, but then evilly smirked.

"Oh, look at that. _The great Arcee_ asks for forgiveness", he exclaimed, sat up and spread his servos like he wanted to touch the sky. Arcee widely opened her optics and managed to sit up as well, looking angrily at him.

"What is your malfunction, Starscream!?"

"Technical glitches, a big mouth and dancing in my head all the time. Didn't I already tell you that?"

"What?" Arcee asked and Starscream slightly blushed.

"What?" he repeated and Arcee, thinking he acted once again, slapped him so hard that it produced a very loud sound. Starscream's optics were wide open as he stared into the direction her hand got his head to. He quickly blinked and growled at the femme, softly touching his faceplate and sharpened his claws on the other hand.

Arcee wasn't impressed.

"What was that for?!" he loudly yelled and leaned above her, only to get a cold glance from the femme he thought he loved.

"For being an aft", she calmly stated and turned her head away from him. The confused mech blinked twice and firstly lowered his optic ridges, but then narrowed his optics again.

"How am I being an aft?! I'm a fraggin' gentlebot!"

"You are a fragging moron, my good sir", she stated and he sinisterly chuckled.

"Thinking you have great humor, right, Arcee?" he asked and she faced him again.

"I'm not trying to be funny. I'm trying to get rid of you", she said calmly and Starscream nodded his head.

"Aha. So it's like that now, isn't it?" he calmly asked as he pulled himself together. The mech got closer to her face and looked into her optics, practically feeling the fury which was hiding beneath the ice blue colored optics that were showing his reflection. He had never noticed how much clearer his reflection was in hers then in the other ones' optics. As he was a scientist, he knew why.

"I hope Megatron returns to the Decepticon cause just to blow your actuator up. That's my dream", she stated and he evilly grinned.

"You have weird dreams", he said and she rolled her optics and sighed.

"You know what I meant", she said and he half-closed his optics and sweetly smiled, looking at her cut lower lip. He realized that they were both looking like they barely managed to escape a trash compactor.

"I don't need to know", he whispered and looked into her bright optics again, only to see that her pupils grew wider. That made him smile, for he knew what that meant.

"What's with that attitude now? Hey, snap out of it, you glitch!"

"Glitch?!" Starscream yelled again and Arcee tried to hide the smile that appeared on her faceplates as he responded that way.

"What do you have to say on that, Scream? And you know whose?"

Starscream slightly smiled again and looked back at her lips.

"Glitch", he repeated.

"Don't want to try guessing, Starscream?" she tried, but he seemed to be stuck in an endless loop of thinking about words he was not supposed to think about.

"Glitch", he repeated yet again and got closer to her.

"Megatron's glitch", Arcee added and Starscream's smile vanished for a second, but then he smiled even wider and slowly shook his head.

"No…"

Arcee tilted her head.

"What no?"

"Not Megatron's…" he said as he bit his lower lip. Then he raised an optic ridge and looked into her optics, "Your."

He looked back at her lips and Arcee widened her optics.

"Wha-"

Starscream didn't let her finish the sentence as he pressed his lips against hers.

* * *

"Uh… Um… I found them, I guess…" Skywarp sent a message via comm. link while he was hiding in the bushes, spying on them. After that, he turned around and simply stated: "Yuck."

 **KLQ TEXQ FQ PBBJP**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Scared and Scarred**_

* * *

As Starscream didn't stop kissing her, Arcee suddenly gave in and hugged the mech whose long sharp claws were located on her soft, but scratched faceplates. His wet claws suddenly sharpened and they cut the femme's cheeks as they slid down her faceplates to reach her shoulders, then they slid down her hurt servos and stopped when he reached her hips, clenching them a bit to prevent her from moving. She wasn't bothered by his kiss and his actions at all, so she returned it and Starscream lost his balance, so she fell on top of him while still pressing her lips against his. The silver mech bit her lip, but then immediately jumped to kiss her neck, silently purring. As Starscream's mind stopped working at all for a cycle, he didn't even want to open his optics anymore as he was enjoying the moment, but he soon reopened his optics as his spark clenched. He remembered where he was and which role he played. He was ashamed. More importantly, afraid to do that. As the femme realized that his chest stopped moving and that he went numb, she stopped with the kisses and touched his forehead with hers, looking into his terrified optics. He half-opened his mouth and blinked twice before pushing her away a bit, but she refused to move, so she remained sitting on his abdomen. That didn't help him at all.

"What is it this time?" Arcee asked as the seeker was still in trance.

He shook his head and she frowned. It was clear to her that they both loved each other, so she expected him to be a bit braver about the whole thing. But Starscream, he was looking at her like she wanted to scrap him. He looked horrified and exciting at the same time.

"Could you might… get off? Please?" Starscream asked and the femme rolled her optics as she knew the circle was going to repeat yet again. He would never change that way.

"Starscream, I asked you a question."

"And I asked you to move", he silently, but severely said, narrowing his blood red optics, which were radiating passion as they were looking into hers. His spark was burning.

"Let me try one more time. Why are you holding back?" Arcee asked and Starscream slightly blushed as he didn't expect that kind of talk. He hated talking about anything romantic in general. He thought it was repulsive.

"Why are you attacking me?" Starscream gasped and quickly turned his head into the forest's direction so he wouldn't have to keep looking at her. Also, he wanted to cool down a bit.

"I thought…"

"Blah, blah, blah, what you thought", Starscream stated and Arcee tilted her head and got off the confused seeker.

" _You_ … kissed _me_ , you know that, right?" Arcee asked and Starscream bit his lower lip and looked at another side, just to avoid eye contact.

"You… practically asked for it", he said and stood up straight, like he wanted to look good in front of her. She looked up at him and heavily sighed as she couldn't understand him in the slightest bit. Whether she was dumb or he was way too weird, she still wouldn't get anything out of it.

"I did not."

Starscream rolled his optics and silently growled.

"Whatever. I did stop, okay? _Imperare sibi maximum est imperium._ _"_

Arcee stared at him for a second.

"I just wish you weren't that weird", Arcee silently stated and the mech looked down to frown at her.

"Weird? Who's weird here?" he said and brushed some dust off his shoulders and raised his chin up, acting like nothing had happened, "What were you expecting from me? First of all, I am sensitive to every kind of contact which involves odd, wet, organic grass touching the back of my head. I can't even stand lying on it, and you expect me to… ugh. Second of all, we're probably being followed, or watched. I'm definitely not about to make out with you while other are looking at us. Third of all, that is disgusting to talk about. Furthermore, you are far too aggressive with those kinds of things. I-I just wanted to show my affection for you, and not… ugh. Please, don't make me talk about this", he explained and walked away a few steps, but then he quickly turned around to face her yet again, "not yet."

Arcee rolled her optics and put a servo at her forehead, saying: "Starscream, why do you make things so awkward for us? I didn't even plan on doing anything…"

"Please, just, leave it be. We should get moving before someone sees us", Starscream started, but Arcee swiftly stood up and walked over to the tall, thin mech.

"You think they'd watch us? Scream, stop avoiding conversation. The only thing I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't-"

Starscream raised his servo up to show that she should stop talking. The femme narrowed her optics at that.

"You know what? Fine, I won't say anything anymore. But just for you to know, you won't be seeing me any time soon as well", she stated and ran towards the woods, but not in an angry way. The way she rushed towards the huge group of trees reminded him of someone playfully running away to play hide and seek. Nevertheless, scared he would really lose her, he ran after her in an attempt to stop her from acting so aggressively.

"Arcee, wait!" He yelled as he was passing by dozens of trees while branches were slapping his face. She didn't respond to his command so he got angry and hurried up, but the femme was nowhere in sight. He suddenly stopped and looked around, only to realize he had no idea where he was. He was listening to an owl's song and to the noise of rustling leaves and grass.

"Oh, just great", he stated and soon heard a chuckle from behind him, so he widened his optics. Before following the noise, he looked left and right to make sure nobody and nothing was watching him. Then he proceeded to walk towards a thin tree which was hidden by plants climbing upwards it and which was hiding a chuckling blue femme behind it. Starscream jumped to reach the tree, with a burst of fury in his spark. As she wasn't there when he leaped to look, the fury started to disappear. It would soon be replaced by playfulness as he could feel the femme's servo hitting his back so that he almost fell over, into the leaves. For an unknown reason, he widely smiled and turned his head around, only to realize that no one was there anymore. When he looked back at the tree, he flinched as Arcee was right there, facing him while being leaned on the tree.

"H-how did you-?"

Arcee shrugged her shoulders, hit his servo and started running again. He rushed after her to stop her from what she was doing to his mind and spark, but he tripped over his own feet and fell down, face first. Arcee stopped running and looked back, realizing he was frowning while looking into her direction. Embarrassed, he looked away.

"You're pathetic", she whispered in a playful way and started walking backwards as she knew that would bring the seeker back up. And it was so.

"You fragging femme should stop underestimating me, for I am commander Starscream of the Decepticons", he boasted a little and put his long claws at his puffed out chest, widely smiling and lowering his wings so that they resembled a cape hanging down his back.

"You're so stupid", she said and shook her head after which the seeker transformed into the slick, silvery fighter jet he was. He rose dust up and flew upwards to loop twice and stop in the air while being tilted to the left. Then he got back down and started circling around the confused femme who was watching him from down under.

"Remember when we used to fight all the time?" he happily asked and Arcee smiled as she missed those days. It was fun to try to scrap him and wrestle with his huge, but lady-like servos.

"Sure."

"Good", he stated and flew right into her, hitting the bruised femme so hard that she hit the ground, but that didn't stop him as he transformed back into robot mode and grabbed her small servos, raising them upwards. She started struggling, but was unable to beat the mech in every way as he was both physically and mentally stronger than her. She eventually gave up and Starscream pushed her servos above her head, so that she had no chance of escaping.

"That's the best you can do?" He asked and she frowned and suddenly pushed rightwards to make him fall down, so that she could climb on top of him. Starscream didn't take it seriously so he just widely smirked and narrowed his optics, but the femme turned her hand into a gun and pointed it right at his face. The surprised mech flinched yet again and stayed down, raising his servos up to concede defeat. The femme smirked and touched his forehead with the gun, slowly getting closer to his long face. He widened his optics so much that they looked adorable. They were full of fear, and Arcee felt great delight in her spark as she managed to beat him one more time, although she knew the battle wasn't anything serious. In fact, she realized that no battle between them was serious, because he could have scrapped her right from the start. The mech was thought not to have a spark at all, at first. She was the only Autobot who knew that he had one, from the moment he released her from the spider's web.

"Well, that proves who's stronger", she said and he frowned and looked away.

"Could you remove that from my face? Please?" He worryingly asked and Arcee frowned.

"If I do, you'll play boss again. And why should I let you?" She asked and Starscream widened his optics, gasped and looked at her face, only to get lost in her optics yet again. He couldn't help it as she was clearly reflecting his ones better than anyone else's optics. He felt an urge to get closer to her, but he knew he mustn't do it. He took the blaster into his hand and shoved it away from his face, sliding out of the femme's possession.

He crossed his servos at his chest and started walking into circles, before sighing and looking back at the wonderful, blue femme: "We need to talk."

Arcee didn't say anything to that; she just raised her head up to see the seeker's worrying expression on his faceplates. She could tell that he was close to tears, although she didn't know why. She hoped it had nothing to do with her behavior the last few solar cycles. The seeker kept staring into her optics for a long period of time as he loved her very much. After a cycle or two, he lowered his optic ridges and half-closed his wet optics, clenching his crossed servos.

"We… we can't be together", he stated after some time and sat down on a rock nearby. Arcee just widened her optics and Starscream looked at her, "Never."

She didn't respond, so he felt obligated to tell her more.

"I'm… afraid."

"Afraid of what? Commitment?!" Arcee angrily asked and Starscream looked away from her and sighed.

"You're so ignorant, femme... It is better that way."

As he said that, Arcee realized that he was acting oddly. As time went by, he was getting more and more scared of her and her actions, which was unusual for the seeker who had no shame before. There was something on his mind that was bothering him, and she knew he would never pass the opportunity on boasting with stuff she didn't know. She stood up and walked over to him to sit right next to him. After some time, she put her tiny hand on his hand and he looked at her fingers gently stroking his ones.

"You can tell me everything", she said and he widened his optics as he didn't expect her to be that compassionate. He actually hoped she would misunderstand and walk off, so she'd never have to see him again. He wanted her to stop being in love with him and he wanted to carry the burden of losing someone he loved on his shoulders, but it was for her to be happy.

"I can't be around you anymore", he angrily said as he looked to the ground.

"Why?" Arcee asked.

"Because I love you too much", he silently said like he was afraid someone would hear that. Then he looked deep into her optics and took her tiny servo into his two hands, warming them up from both sides.

"See my hands warming yours up? That's love. When something warms you up from both sides. And if you do that to me… Well… I'll want to return that favor."

"Why would that be a problem?" Arcee asked and sweetly smiled at him, but he still seemed sad.

"Because you're wasting your time with me by your side."

She narrowed an optic in confusion.

"At some point in your lifetime, you'll want to settle down. You'll want to… I don't know… bond with someone or… that kind of stuff."

Arcee looked away.

"And when that time arrives, I won't help you."

Arcee looked back at him, rolled her optics, crossed her servos and said: "So you _are_ afraid of commitment."

"No. I'm afraid of taking your life away."

Arcee narrowed her optics and tilted her head.

"What?"

He took a deep breath and put her hand at her thigh, clenching it with his huge servo as he was afraid she'd do something to him. He half-opened his mouth, but didn't dare to tell his secret. Arcee suddenly hugged him and his servo automatically went hugging her back.

"I'm… infected. With dark energon."

Silence was the only thing that surrounded them for a few cycles.

"I… I vowed I would never… ever again use it for anything in my life. I was investigating its powers because Megatron had ordered me to do so. You probably know about Megatron being addicted to it… but… I'm no better. I wanted to… win the war, no matter what; I had to try the hardest I could. I wanted to reign over Cybertron and wanted to be the leader… not realizing I wasn't capable of that post. I used the scrap to revive a fallen Cybertronian, bring him back from the dead."

Arcee widened her optics as she remembered that she saw Cliffjumper being a Terrorcon. She hugged him even tighter after that, although she was furious that he used it. She was angry at everything that was reminding her on her previous losses.

"I planned on using it only once… but forgot it caused addiction. Soon, I started ingesting it more and more, until it was torn out of my greedy, sinful hand. It let me craving for more, but, I eventually managed to snap out of it. One day I was sleeping peacefully until my spark started going crazy, way back when I was playing a hermit. After you almost killed me after I wanted to join you, if you remember."

"How could I forget", she silently asked. Starscream couldn't get if she was sad or angry or anything else as she wasn't moving at all. She wasn't even looking at him.

"It awoke me at night. A stormy, rainy night. I walked over to the control room to get some light and saw my optics being unusually dark, and I also had huge, black rings around my optics. As I wanted to continue on my research, something hit my spark so hard that I fell to the floor. I was afraid to look what it was, but I knew I had to."

The seeker pushed her away and touched his spark chamber. He looked at her in a questionable way, like he wanted to ask her for permission to show his spark to her. She stared at him with scared-looking optics, but she shrugged her shoulders to let him know that it was okay with her.

"I-It's not a pretty sight", he stated before opening his spark chamber, revealing the spark which was supposed to be light blue, but was a darker color and had a dark purple, tainted part in the middle of it. After she widened her optics, he hurried to shut it close and looked away so he wouldn't have to see her worrying optics.

"You know what this means, right?"

She remained silent.

"I will… never be able to join the AllSpark."

Silence.

"I have aggressive tendencies for no reason. I sometimes can't keep my claws from attacking, that's why I'm not sleeping in my chamber at the Autobot base any longer. I sleep at a berth in the medical bay to keep me from attacking a random wall. I can't control my emotions. I usually can't sleep at night and end up thinking about my life choices the whole night. How I did everything the wrong way and how I will never be able to go to the afterlife… I know there'll be a time when I won't want to live anymore… But I can't ever die, for I'll… go in a state of limbo, I guess? Or even worse, Unicron could posses my body and create a new fate for me."

As he stopped, Arcee looked at him in a sad and horrified way. As the seeker saw that, he falsely smiled.

"Do you know how hard it is to wake up from the short dream you had, thinking that it might be the last day you live? And if you do die, that you will not be able to live any further, like you weren't created for an afterlife at all? Like you lived as a puppet to the world, and then you perish without letting anything behind except from pain. And then, you can't even think of redeeming yourself because you can't be there where you want to be and you can't be punished. Waking up with that thought, Arcee, is the greatest burden of my life, yet… By being in love with you, I managed to forget that my life is lost, even for a second. The way you smile at me," he said and smiled wider, "got me thinking that I will at least live those days I still have in peace in happiness. And fulfillment. It is nothing compared to forever, but it _will_ make me remember the days when I was with you."

"Starscream, I had no idea…"

Starscream realized he made her worry and hated himself for doing this.

"You needn't worry. I'm already coping with the situation."

"Starscream, you just told me that you will never be able to join the afterlife and you tell me your 'coping with the situation'. Starscream, don't you realize that that's worse than death!?"

"I know!" Starscream exclaimed and cut her servos to get her hands away from his. Immediately after seeing her leak, his optics got wet again and he hugged the femme tightly, finally releasing all of the misery and agony which was depositing on his weak spark. He started whining. And Arcee started crying as well, after which she hugged him back.

"I-I'm sorry Arcee, I can't simply b-be around you any l-longer… I cannot… No…" he was stuttering while whining, "If you stay with me, you'll might… I'll might…"

"But it will keep you alive, Starscream, it will", she said as his tears slid down her helm. He broke away from the hug and clenched her shoulders to look at her beautiful face which had a single tear resting on the right cheek. He shook his head.

"I don't want to stay alive", he suddenly said and she widened her optics, "not without you."

The femme suddenly jumped forwards and kissed him passionately, so that they fell off the rock. The seeker tried to stop her, but she didn't want to. After he managed to escape from her kiss, he looked at her and said: "Please, stop. Don't waste your life…"

"If you're not dying, than I'm not dying as well."

"What are you-, "he stopped as he realized what she meant with that, after which he narrowed his optics and started yelling, "Are you out of your mind?!"

"No", she said.

"I'M NOT BONDING WITH YOU! You're throwing away your precious life!"

She shrugged her shoulders and Starscream suddenly started crying again, so he put a servo over his optics to hide that. He was ashamed to cry just because of the fact that she listened to him. He hated himself for being so weak that he cried for every little thing she said. But no one ever showed any kind of affection towards him, so he wasn't prepared for that sort of talk. Never before did anybody want to risk their life for him. He wasn't used to it, which made tears flow down his faceplates. He thought he was hated by everyone, before he met her. He thought he wasn't worth anyone's attention and he thought that he was just a burden to everyone around him. He thought he wasn't worth their time and every time he did cry, or smile at something, they locked him up so they wouldn't have to see him do that. He would always hide from that moment onwards and the hate in him grew stronger. He suddenly realized all his choices, except from choosing her, were wrong. Whatever happened from this point onwards was going to be his fault. And that made him even sadder. But he couldn't tell her, it would break her spark. Arcee's lips suddenly touched his again and for a moment, he stopped thinking about life and death.

"Starscream, I love you", she said with an honest tone, which made his spark twitch in sadness.

"I-I'm not worth it, I… I'm not…" he stuttered as he was trying to suppress the tears which kept coming. She touched his forehead with his.

"I'm not worth it… Please, don't… I'm… I'm not worth it… I'm not significant, I don't deserve anything!" he kept whining and Arcee kissed him again, which made his tears burst out. After a few seconds of crying, he reopened his dull, dark optics and looked into her beautiful lively ones. He slightly smiled and shook his head.

"I… don't deserve it…"

"Nobody does. That's why it is considered a gift", she stated and the seeker's smile got wider as his optics went narrower from the smile, "Love is a gift, Scream."

"I love you so much…"

"Let's be Sparkmates", she suddenly said and left him paralyzed for a moment.

Starscream looked at her and dumbly smiled, to which she responded with another shrug and simple smile.

"You are risking not only getting infected, but also letting me kill you."

"Never tell me the odds", she said and Starscream knew this didn't need a response. He put his weight on his servos and let the femme kiss him passionately one more time.

* * *

 **EB FP DLFKD QL OBDOBQ  
XIPL, QEFP TXP QBOOFYIC QL TOFQB**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Sickness**_

* * *

He suddenly woke up, and managed to open his optics which were stuck together because of the tears he cried before, heavily breathing and looking pale. His dull red optics were widely open and were looking horrified **.** He was looking up at the sky as he was lying on the wet grass, right next to the femme he loved. His chest was rising especially high as he couldn't get any air into his systems. After a few seconds of gasping for air, he looked at the femme's tiny servo placed on his closed spark chamber. He was trying not to move too much so he wouldn't wake her up, although she was nervously bending herself. Perhaps she was dreaming the same dream he awoke from right at that moment. His spark was aching in an unusual way; the pain was stronger than it was ever before. He didn't know what was going on as the infection clearly couldn't get any worse. He was terrified as he thought of the fact that he could die any cycle from it and then had to roam the limbo world. Soon, he was sure he had to move a little as he couldn't get enough air, but he looked at Arcee instead to shake that fear off. He hoped he was exaggerating.

The femme was sleeping with her head pressed against his broad shoulder. Her faceplates were scratched and cut. As he looked down towards her feet he saw a large number of painful-looking cuts of which some were still leaking energon. His paint was all over her, and so were his claw marks. He was afraid some of the cuts were going to stay on her forever. Especially those around her spark chamber.

He bit his lower lip and laid his head down again, facing in the opposite direction of her. He half-opened his mouth and started exhaling before he closed his optics again. He was trying to sleep, but after a few seconds, he awoke again and suddenly sat up, tossing the femme off him. Arcee yelped, but just yawned as she found herself on the grass.

He started breathing heavily, so he stood up and started walking into circles. He was feeling all kinds of sick and a lot of solutions were coming up in his mind, but nothing seemed to be the cause of his nausea.

Arcee realized that he was acting very strange, so she started worrying.

"What is it?" she asked, unable to open her optics fully. The moon was still in the sky and it was pitch black. Starscream didn't answer, but stopped moving nervously around her. He just looked at her in a scared way before approaching her and sitting down next to her again. His head was lowered, his lips shut, his optics tiresome and his spark's beat was so loud that Arcee could hear it clearly. She widened her optics and looked at his frowning face, scared that something was wrong with him. She thought that Spark Mates could read each other's minds, but now it seemed like it was just a myth. Or they did something wrong. The only thing which her spark traced was his spark's beat.

"Hey, calm down", she said, softly smiled at him and rested her helm against his servo. He looked at her from the side. She smiled even wider and narrowed her optics from the smile she addressed to him. He didn't smile back, but he got his claw at the three deep cuts which were located at her right servo. She noticed that he seemed sorry.

"Oh… don't worry. It doesn't hurt at all", she stated and took his servo to pull it down. She didn't let it go.

"I… couldn't control myself", he whispered and narrowed his optics, "I loathe the fact that I actually listened to Megatron just once, when he thought of the worst idea ever."

Arcee tilted her head.

"Don't go so hard on yourself."

Starscream raised his optic ridge and looked her in the optics, saying: "Arcee, look at yourself. Then tell me if you have ever been more hurt."

Arcee knew the situation was bad as every movement hurt. She had a terrible headache, her vision was blurry, she was scratched from helm to toe, one of her winglets was facing the wrong direction, her audio receptors gave up, a tire of her alt mode was flat and the ridges left and right of her face were covered in dents from his dental plates. She didn't even want to look at her aching spark chamber, but knew it looked bad, considering that he opened it with his dental plates. She was dizzy, but she didn't let that thought boggle her mind. She was happy nevertheless.

"Love hurts…?" she asked and wrapped her small hands around his. He looked at her from the side again and slightly smiled and blushed.

"It sure does. All these years of waiting for a moment to tell you the truth… It was quite painful", he stated and she crawled on all fours to face him, then sat up and wrapped her servos around his scratched neck. They started swaying softly as they were looking at each other without saying anything. The femme half-closed her optics and pressed her 'nose' against his, so that his mouth was an inch away from hers. He half-closed his optics as well and wanted to kiss her, but she playfully swung back every time he tried to do that. When he finally gave up, she sat between his legs and pulled him down to align their faces. As he was just staring at her lips, she licked them and then kissed him passionately. When they were done kissing, the seeker slowly opened his tired optics again and slightly smiled as he loved the way she was making his spark skip a beat every time she touched him, and he loved the tickling inside of it. He then put his ice cold hands at her faceplates and touched her forehead with his, exhaling. He still felt terribly sick.

"Why would you wake me up in the middle of my recharge period? You better have a good reason to do that", she sassily said. Starscream smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"I tried to remain silent. Didn't work out."

"Why?"

"I don't know… I'm feeling kind of sick… There's something weird going on in my spark…"

Arcee widened her optics and smiled again, removing his cold hands from her faceplates and pulling them down. Then, she put her fingers into the space between his chest and neck to pull him down again so their faces would align. The mech's back hurt, but that didn't bother him at all at that point.

"Did I manage to get you sparked?" she asked and the mech laughed a bit and pushed her down at the ground, carefully, so that she wouldn't get hurt from his weight.

"It's not funny."

"Why are you laughing, then?" Arcee asked and Starscream rolled his optics and got closer to her face. He shook his head.

"It's just defensive state mechs use to appear more attractive to femmes."

"You don't look any more attractive to me now that you laughed."

Starscream shrugged.

"I guess it's impossible for me to appeal to you more than I already do, then."

Arcee rolled her optics and shook her head in disapproval, but the mech smugly smiled anyways. He felt like he won that battle.

"So, what's really bothering you? Why did you wake up?" she asked and the seeker slowly got away from her to lie down next to her again. She put her head at his chest plate and looked at his bright red optics which were emitting a special kind of warm light towards her.

"I had this weird dream", he said and looked up at her and couldn't stop his shy smile from coming to the surface as she was right there on top of him. He still couldn't believe he just became Spark Mates with the femme he dreamt about for eons. Good looking, smart, clever, highly capable, sassy and skilled in many ways, plus a really good listener.

She nuzzled her head against his chest and blinked a few times as she was looking at him.

"I was… standing on a cliff made out of scrap metal… and dead Cybertronians…"

Arcee's optics widened and she raised her head a bit, just to show her interest.

"I felt like I was free from… everything, every boundary. There was no pain in my spark or anything… I was just free. Suddenly, a picture of you flashed through my head and I started looking around, eventually spotting you down the cliff. You were crying."

Arcee rolled her optics and he shyly smiled again.

"I wanted to reach you by flying towards you, but then I realized I had no wings. Incapable of reaching you, I started calling your name out, but you didn't respond. I eventually climbed down the pile of dead Autobots, Decepticons and whatnot, and started running towards you… but I just kept running. No matter how fast and for much I ran, I couldn't reach you. You were always at the same distance, until you turned around and locked your optics at me. Then, a tear slid down your face and… you fell over."

Arcee widened her optics.

"I screamed and wanted to run towards you, but was unable to move again. My wings suddenly appeared again, but I couldn't transform. I looked at my side only to realize I had no T-cog. Terrified, I tried to reach you again as you weren't responding to my calls. When I finally gave up and wanted to go the other way, I suddenly felt my spark beating harshly, after which I quickly became sick."

Arcee blinked.

"It wasn't really a terrifying dream, but… It felt too real."

As he said that, he swiftly turned around to get his hands at the femme's spark chamber to open it, but Arcee giggled and hit his claws. The seeker pulled his hand back all while looking into her piercing blue optics.

"What do you think you're doing?" Arcee asked with a smile on her faceplates and Starscream smiled back.

"I just… wanted to check if your spark's alright or not… What if I managed to share my corruption with you?"

"Nice try, seeker. Really nice try", Arcee stated and Starscream sat up again. The femme remained nuzzling her head against his chest.

"No, I'm serious."

"Just because you dream something doesn't mean it will necessarily happen. I mean, I dreamt of Cliffjumper and me having a family, but did that ever happen?"

Starscream widened his optics and looked at the femme in terror. She just said something about her former partner right in front of him. Not only did he realize that he couldn't feel her emotions at that moment, he also realized their minds were connected at some point. She wouldn't have done that if Starscream wasn't the one who thought of that mech just as an obstacle between him and the femme without even knowing her at first. He hated that guy right from the start, which was why he murdered him at the first place. Also, he got a bit jealous, so he looked away from her to see the sun slowly coming up in the distance, coloring the sky in an orange tone. Fluffy clouds were getting illuminated from the sun and thus made the scenery look even nicer.

Arcee looked at him and smiled as she realized he didn't look very happy about that.

"Oh… are you jealous?" she teased and he puckered his lips.

"I just hope that was before you found out I have a good side."

"Yeah, sure…" Arcee stated and looked into the distance as well, earning a surprised look from Starscream. He stared blankly at her for quite a while before letting it go and facing the sun as well.

The sun soon started swallowing the darkness and the sky was getting white. It looked nothing like the sunrises on their planet. Arcee had already forgotten what it looked like from this planet's viewpoint. She suddenly remembered her human friends again and wished she could be with them right now. She missed them very much.

Starscream's focus went to Arcee as he realized she was thinking about something nice, as it made her smile. He loved the way she smiled, making his head spin. The hole he felt in his spark before was like gone, but the ache in his chest was suffocating his happiness, which is why he didn't smile all the time. He did feel like the happiest mech alive, though. His mind was far away from the thought of love, though. He was scared to death, but not because of him that time. It was because he feared something went wrong with the bond. If that was the case, he could have spread the corruption and they'd both be doomed. Also, he didn't tell her the truth yet. Still, he smiled. He smiled to escape from the pain that was suffocating him from the inside. Perhaps, it was even better that the bond didn't work out perfectly; otherwise she would be suffocating in pain as well.

Arcee realized the mech was looking at her, so she raised her head up to look at him, instead of the giant, beautiful glowing ball of fire.

"Don't have anything better to do than to stare at me, Seeker?"

The silver mech cutely smiled and shook his head. Arcee continued looking t him.

"Ever thought of… me and you having a family, one day?" the seeker suddenly asked and the femme smirked.

"Nope", she immediately said and looked towards the rising sun again. The seeker frowned as her smile showed that she was telling the truth.

"Heh… Yeah, me neither", he lied and looked into the distance as well. Looking at the sun and concentrating at the scenery around him made him feel somewhat better, but then, Arcee suddenly stood up.

"Starscream," she whispered and the pain started flowing through him again, "the others!"

He looked at her as she turned around to face him.

"What's with them?!" she panicked and Starscream widened his optics and stood up to calm her down.

"It's okay, they're…"

"What if something happened to them?! Starscream, I could never forgive myself if that was the case!" Arcee yelled and the mech suddenly hugged her to stop her from shouting like they were the only ones on the planet.

"Now, now, no need to be _that_ concerned about them, right?" he asked and widely smiled, but she broke away from the hug and started looking around aimlessly, like something big came over her. Starscream just blinked.

"Did you see that ship, Scream?! They're gonna kill them all, for sure!" she yelled and the seeker lowered his head.

"They won't…"

"How do you know, Starscream?" Arcee said and approached him again. He remained still.

"I still have the Decepticon mentality. I know they're not going to do that…"

"Starscream, I…" she started shaking, so he embraced her.

"Relax. It'll be fine."

"No, Starscream, something's wrong with me…"

"While we're at it, I have to tell you something… it's… kind of a big deal, but, um… It's for us, so…"

"Scream, I'm-"

"No, no, it's not _that_ big of a deal! It's just…"

Arcee slammed to his chest and he froze for a second. He looked down at her and nudged her a little to make her move away as he didn't feel comfortable with her pressing her body against his like that, but he quickly realized she wasn't doing that on purpose. The femme fell unconscious.

He widened his optics and fell to the ground, holding his unconscious mate in his hands. His ache started to get worse, but he didn't have time to care about himself at that point. As she didn't want to wake up and as he didn't know what to do, the seeker gently put her at the ground, stood up, walked a few steps away and picked up a comm. link.

"I… didn't manage to tell her… but I do need immediate assistance over here. She's… unconscious."

"… _Was für ein Blödmann bist du, eigentlich?!"_

* * *

 **CLO PLJB OBXPLK, HKLZH LRQ ABZFABA QL FKPRIQ EFJ LK DBOJXK**


	9. Chapter 9

_**The Anticipated**_

* * *

"Arcee. Wake up, Arcee. Come on, wake up", she heard her Spark Mate's voice in her audios and flinched. His voice was somehow different than it was before. His tone was low and he was almost whispering, like he couldn't talk loud enough anymore. He sounded sad, and scared. She wanted to open her optics and to wake up immediately, but she soon realized that her body was paralyzed. She was unable to open her optics or her mouth to say something. She got scared and her spark started beating faster and faster, like it was racing Starscream's fast beat. She wished she could find a shelter in the seeker's servos, but she had no idea where he was or where she was. She could soon weakly feel the silver seeker's servos wrapping around her waist and picking her up. She wished she could hug him back.

"Please, Cee", he stated and looked at her shut optics and half-opened mouth. He was feeling terribly as well, but not because of the pain. Actually, the pain in his spark was completely gone, and he feared it might have passed onto her. If that was the case, he could never forgive himself.

She tried to move another time, only to feel like something stabbed her through her spark, so she completely froze. The only response Starscream got was Arcee breathing hardly and heavily. At least he knew she was alive, now. Arcee had tons of questions at her mind. The cold they were on wasn't grassy and wet like before, it felt like cold, hard metal. The room wasn't filled with the fresh air full of oxygen from the forest, but was very warm and dry. She felt anxious in the environment she was, as she couldn't guess where she was located.

Suddenly, she heard shots in the distance and wanted to leap up again. That didn't happen.

"Relax, everything's fine. Nobody is shooting at you", Starscream explained and Arcee completely understood what he meant. They were probably shooting at him. The question was however: who? Who would shoot at him and why, as he didn't do anything wrong.

"You needn't worry, my dear. Everything is going to be just fine. As soon as I get us out of this trouble, we'll be lying in the grass again, alone and freed from any kind of trouble. I promise."

She didn't buy it. Something in his voice sounded like he knew they weren't going back to freedom. He wouldn't say it that humbly, f that was the case. She knew the only thing the seeker loved more than power was freedom… and her. Combined, there was no way he would have said that in a sad tone.

She remained silent, free from any thoughts. Although she could barely feel the seeker's servos around her, she enjoyed the moment she was in. She felt like it would be the last time the seeker was holding her, for some reason. She was afraid of losing him.

He, on the other side, was afraid of losing her. His dark, dull optics were half-closed and dark circles were under his optics. Her paint on him was completely gone and so were most of his scratches. He didn't want to lose the scar on his left faceplate, however. It was reminding him at the past and at all the misery they went through. From the time of war, when they faced each other hundreds of times and their battles against each other, to the times they were walking around the planet in search for the meaning of their existence. Everything came back to him, like it was the last time he could hold her like that. The time she tied them to that berth and left him struggling to get free while running away with Cliffjumper, the moment he killed him, the moment she found out and wanted to scrap him so he fought back, naturally, how she spared him, how they encountered each other when they were after that traitorous wretch Airachnid and how he saved her without her knowing that he actually didn't fire at her for payback, but to save her, and then showed that he had a spark after all by sparing her life. He remembered purposely picking Jack when they were on Cybertron, only to see her face from the close again. Then he remembered how he fought her right at the end of the last war, secretly letting her win.

His throat ached as the memories were all coming back.

He remembered how he was lying on the floor because the Predacons beat him up and couldn't stand up as everything hurt him and he got an infection from his energon being exposed to the open air mixed with all kinds of chemical compounds. The cause why he couldn't stand up was actually nothing else than the dark energon itself, as Knock Out explained to him when they were alone. That is why he thought Starscream wouldn't survive the night back then, and he actually cared for him _and_ Arcee only because he was the only one who knew about Starscream's secret, and that even if he did die, he would have to roam the world, and he was scared that he might want to get revenge on him. He remembered how she helped him, and didn't leave him rust there because of his despicable behavior. He remembered how she came to visit him, although she couldn't stand him back then. How she was showing him the rebuilt city, and how he betrayed her and used her to get into the base. How they rolled into the space bridge which was turning gray as someone turned it off, and how he fortuitously touched her hand. How she brought the wet leaf back and helped treating his wounds and how he helped her treating her broken servo after saving her from humans. How they were captured and held by them as experiments, and how he said 'I love you' through the thick glass.

He suddenly stopped thinking about their past, leaned forward and softly kissed the blue femme in his servos. He immediately parted his lips from hers and whispered: "I love you".

She wished she could say it back, or at least smile at him. But nothing was possible.

Suddenly, she heard a knock coming from the distance and felt Starscream's body twitch.

"How long have you been standing there?!" Starscream silently and madly asked, unable to realize that Arcee could hear everything.

"Didn't see anythin'. At least not purposely", said a somewhat familiar voice, but Arcee couldn't recall where she already heard that voice. Her memory was blurry, but she was sure she didn't know the mech who was talking to the seeker she loved. It definitely wasn't a Decepticon she knew… or an Autobot.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think you're needed out there."

"What's happening?" Starscream whispered. Arcee thought that maybe he believed that she was unconscious, so he wanted to stay as silent as possible.

"Scrap's about to go down", the mech at the entrance responded.

Starscream carefully took her head into his long fingers and gently placed her in a comfortable position at the ground. He then stood up and seemingly opened a door, walking away from her.

" _And why are you here, then?"_ she could hear him talk in the distance.

" _I'm… not really a fighter. I'm more of a… enthusiast."_

Silence was in the room yet again.

" _Fine. You can stay. Get the medic and remember to tell him not to say a word, got that so far?"_

She could hear the seeker's steps going away.

" _Did you apply the shields?"_

" _Two Nemesis shields from Garo and Com. Just like you wanted them to be: huge and reliable."_

After that, the room went silent again. Steps were coming from more directions, so she couldn't pinpoint the location of anyone in her surroundings. She felt helpless; as far as she knew, it could be someone trying to scrap her. Just as she thought about that, a paralyzing ray went right through her body to make her go completely unconscious.

* * *

"Wakie, wakie", she heard a sinister voice and managed to half-open her optics. The first thing she saw was a pair of red, piercing optics which were looking at her with agitation. There was a smug smile on his white faceplates, just like he knew he was going to succeed.

"Alive and well?" he happily asked and narrowed his optics from the smile. He really seemed happy with the result.

Arcee leaped and pinned herself at the wall, away from the red medic who was looking at her with big, sparkling optics. She was terrified and was breathing heavily while every spark beat hurt like someone was stabbing her. She looked around only to see that she was in some kind of small metal prison which wasn't secured with anything except by the mech who was right in front of her. In fact, the small prison looked much like a cage for small animals that the kids back at Earth would often show to her. She felt that way as well. As she looked around, she managed to see some flashing buttons and control panels, although her vision was extremely bleary. There was a table in the middle of the chamber, and on the table were small gadgets and weapons. Next to the table, there was another mech who was leisurely looking around the room, his legs crossed, while there were explosions on the outside.

The femme wanted to try to escape, but got a terrible headache as soon as she leaped, so she crashed to the floor and decided to stay there for a while. The 'Con leisurely sitting across her just looked at her.

"Don't even try, Arcee. You're using too much energy", Knock Out stated and Arcee looked at him with terror in her dull optics which didn't look as alive and energetic as before.

Knock Out sat down at the floor to align his optics with her, seeing how scared and furious the femme was. She was in the same room her and Starscream were brought to before. She absolutely despised the way Knock Out was looking at her with care radiating from his optics. She stared at the small particles which were seen because of the bright light the mech's optics were emitting. She wondered why hers weren't that bright.

"As a good friend of yours, I accept your decision of falling in love with whoever you want to fall in love with and I am immensely happy for you. But as a certificated medic who somewhere along the way realized that you were out of your mind when you agreed to become the seeker's Spark Mate instead of just being his _Conjunx Endura_ although you knew he was infected with dark energon and was suffering consequences which weren't only bad for him, I must say: **HOW SHALLOW CAN A FEMME ACTUALLY GET?!** "

Knock Out seemed furious, so Arcee remained sitting in the corner, pinned to the wall, completely frozen and free from any thought.

He exhaled, cooled down and put a servo at his forehead to hide the obvious fright to tell her the truth. Then, he softly chuckled and slowly blinked as he looked at her. He shook his head multiple times before his smile started to fade.

"How can I say this, now…?" he silently said and Arcee realized that he was filling up with sadness.

Her spark started beating faster and she looked away, only to realize that the mech who was sitting at the chair next to the table vanished.

"You're in the cage because Starscream knew that you won't handle the truth."

"What? Starscream… what happened while I was unconscious…?"

"He'll tell it on his own. It is not of much importance right now. What is important is, however, Starscream's medical condition."

Arcee's optics widened and her optic ridges lowered. She went silent.

Knock Out lowered his head and decided to tell a little digression.

"Starscream's leading us, Arcee. Wasn't it obvious from the start?"

Arcee suddenly widened her optics and wanted to attack the mech who dared to say such a thing, but stopped as she didn't feel the urge to hit him. She didn't want to; he _was_ a friend once, after all.

"The mech became completely obsessed with you. He was not forming the Decepticons; he was just forming a group of 'friends' who'd prove to your team that he wasn't so bad after all. But somewhere over the course of action, he forgot that they trusted him, and that they loved you."

Arcee was silent.

"He wanted to be free with you. And with the dark energon in his spark, he went from reasonable to crazy. He wasn't dying or anything, but he was suffering. I believe he told you that. And with your state, Cee, he will go much crazier."

As he said that, she could hear shots coming from outside again.

"Who's fighting? Autobots. And someone we used to call 'Decepticons'."

The femme half-opened her mouth and looked at the red medic who seemed honest about it. She didn't know if she could handle it.

"Starscream didn't want to be a Decepticon, Arcee. He just wanted the best for you… and failed horribly. He didn't start it all, he was actually invited. Everyone's here: Shockwave, Airachnid, even Soundwave. And being the powerless mech who wanted to gain the power he needed to save you, he freed Shockwave, who in return gave the leadership to Starscream. The mech simply couldn't resist."

Arcee remained silent and the door behind the table opened. Arcee widened her optics as she didn't see one stick-legged, broad shouldered mech with a pointy chin, but two. One of them smiled, the other one frowned, and they walked towards her.

"So… that's his wifu? She seems rather… small…" the one with the purple extension on his nose stated. He was a bit darker in color than the other one.

"Don't be a fool, Skywarp. Everyone who is as brilliant as me knows that it is clearly not a wifu, it is a _wifi,_ in earth language", the other one, with the blue extension on his nose said and smiled in a smug way. He crossed his servos and Knock Out stood up to stop them from coming closer, revealing the purple-eyed mech, who was jamming the gadgets and weapons from the table into his chest department. As everybody stopped moving, he stopped stealing as well and stood up straight, shutting his department and putting his servos at his back, widely smiling while showing his imperfect, but white dents.

"It's… it's definitely not what it looks like", he said and shrugged his shoulders, which caused a few gadgets to fall out. They all looked at him as in questioning where he was keeping that, and he just started whistling.

"Two Starscreams… exploded prisoner alive… appearing out of nowhere" Arcee mumbled and everyone looked at her. After that, she simply keeled over and everyone froze. After a few seconds, Swindle blinked and stretched his servos, so the others looked at him.

"Welp… I guess it was a lot to take in", he said and the rest nodded their heads.

* * *

 **MXV XQQBKQFLK QL PQXOPZOBXJ'P EBXIQE**


	10. Chapter 10

_**Still a Friend**_

* * *

"Her state is worsening", he said, fearful of what might happen to him. Not only did Starscream love his Spark Mate with all of his being, he was also heavily influenced by the femme's pain and suffering. Starscream was in a terrible mood because of that. He was watching the scenery out the window as the ship was slowly moving above Cybertron. The mech was gazing at the rebuilt city and was wondering why it all ended like this. There were dark circles around his optics and his hands were clenched at his back. Standing straight, he slowly turned his head right to glimpse at the red automobile enthusiast before he sinisterly growled and turned his back at him again. He looked like he didn't care, but he did. He never stopped caring.

Knock Out cleared his throat and slowly approached the seeker. Starscream suddenly raised a servo of his to show that the mech shouldn't come closer.

"There's no need to step closer. You'll observe everything from right there where you stand."

"Yeah, that's the thing. Do we… really have to do this…?"

"Huh?" Starscream asked and turned to see the red medic, who was standing near the corner of the room, his servos clenched together so that he would appear weaker.

"They… they cared for you, Starscream."

Starscream chuckled and turned to face him. As he did, Knock Out realized that Starscream wasn't the same he was before. His optics were plain dull and were barely shining, while his grin was wide and was sending shivers down the medic's spine. There was no remorse in his optics, for what he was about to do. There was no compassion, no, nothing left inside. He looked like he was about to destroy the world, and then fall over himself. Knock out feared it was exactly what he was planning to do.

"Starscream, that's not you… You wouldn't do that. It's the femme's state that's making you go insane!" Knock Out shortened the story, for he was too afraid to tell anything to the seeker. Not that he was afraid that Starscream would hurt him; he was afraid what he would do to himself.

Starscream's grin widened and he showed his dental plates.

"Something's taking over you! Snap out of it!"

"You snap out of your silly accusations!" he yelled, but remained smiling, "I've been planning this since forever. After I'll be done with them, you'll be next, Autobot."

Knock Out blinked.

"Don't you understand? One shoot and everything falls into oblivion! Every single Autobot base, the whole city, the whole planet! And when it's finally over… I'll have my revenge _and_ I'll have enough energy to be able to use the Time Bridge! Too bad it goes by the life energy of living Cybertronians… well… it's just the way it goes, you know."

Knock Out's spark skipped a beat as he was standing there like frozen. He couldn't believe what his friend has become. He understood how it happened, but never wanted to believe that it actually could. At the thought of the disappearance of the planet, of the group he joined and of the friends he made, he quickly got mad.

"I know a way that you can cut every last tie. And you're doing it right now."

Starscream's grin disappeared, slowly.

"The friends you made… Starscream… the friends that supported you and that trusted you… could you really watch them die? And everything down there; could you really watch it burn without feeling anything? They trusted you. They respected you. Heck, one of them even fused her spark with yours, knowing that it would eventually kill her!"

Starscream's optics widened as he mentioned that. His optics went slightly brighter.

"In the end, after everything you've been through, every mission you went to, every person you helped… was it for nothing?! Was it for show?! They wanted you to help them as they knew you were good _back then_ , but in the end they're all gonna fall, and fall to your hand?! I see your mind. I know you started off just to be with her, but it turned out to be… well. Genocide."

Starscream lowered his head as it got to him for a second. For a second, he remembered who he was and knew everything he was about to do was wrong. He remembered that the Autobots fighting for their life on the ship were once considered his friends. He knew he was wrong. As Knock Out got closer to him to put a servos on his shoulder, the mech quickly changed back to the monster he was from the illness and slammed the mech's right faceplate, leaving a small, but deep cut on it. Knock Out gasped, but stayed silent so that he won't get his paint job scratched as well.

"Leave", Starscream stated and Knock Out took a step back.

The mech turned away to face the control panel again.

"If you don't want to watch the planet getting blown up, leave. I won't change my mind. It's a paragon opportunity."

Knock Out just stood there for a second, before slowly backing off. When he was about to exit, he looked at the mech once again and crossed his servos.

"Think of the future, Starscream. If you destroy the planet now, I know you won't stop there. The next planet will definitely be the Earth. Then the whole solar system. Then Andellor, Caminus, Velocitron, Dahros, Xeptos. There won't be a place for you and Arcee, you can't live in this ship, even if you destroy us all", he impishly smiled and tilted his head as he pressed the button for opening the door.

"Or should I rather say… a place for you and your family…?"

With those words, he left Starscream staring into his direction. The mech's optics widened as he felt a burst of pain rush through his spark, leaving behind a hot trace of happiness. His legs trembled as he stumbled towards the control panel. He took a quick glance back at the door to look at Soundwave looking at him as he was about to press the button for blowing up everything underneath him. He had nothing to lose and would surely win the fight with all of the weapons and shields he had delivered. He frowned at the mysterious Cybertronian who was watching him and probably filming his actions together with his pet which was right next to him, Ravage. Then he turned towards the panel again and was about to press the button, but started whining instead. He realized he was going crazy, and knew what that meant. Knowing what will happen to his Spark Mate if he doesn't go back in time was the reason why he wanted to kill everyone in the city. Just to keep her with him.

* * *

They were staring into each other's optics. He was outside, sitting in a chair and reading something, while she had her hands wrapped around the grids of the small cage she was still in. Nobody was saying anything for a megacycle.

Suddenly, the blue femme sighed and the entrepreneur looked back at the article he was reading.

"Huh. Look at that. Some dude's selling spare tires, one for the price of two. Genius", the mech happily said so that it wouldn't get more awkward than it already was. They literally had nothing to talk about. Arcee mumbled something and sat on her knees while still clenching the grid.

"If I bought something from you, would you release me?" Arcee asked and Swindle looked at her serious face.

"Wish I could, but no can do. My life's still more important than money, ya know."

"Why am I even here…? Nobody even explained anything to me."

"Oh, they did," Swindle answered, "you just fell unconscious in the process of it, not remembering anything."

They were just minding their own business for some time again.

"Nice tie", Arcee said as nothing else came to her mind.

"Bolo tie. Yeah, I know", Swindle responded and smiled at her, before facing the tablet he was holding again.

"Want one…?" he asked after a cycle and Arcee smiled and shook her head. Then they looked down again.

"You're… not a Decepticon, are you?" Arcee silently asked as she realized he was unusually calm for one. He also didn't care at the slightest.

"Welp, technically, I am one, but… the war's just a business opportunity for me. Why lose if you can gain profit, you know what I mean?" he answered and smiled, "I'm just here because Starscream persuaded me into joining us as he saw what I have to offer. Otherwise, I and Shockwave would be goners. Shockwave was the one that persuaded Starscream into releasing him, though. Starscream wanted to decline, but… I heard he likes you very much, and he likes being the chief, so… that purple one-eyed mastermind's at it again."

"Excuse me?" Arcee asked as she heard Swindle's voice getting serious for a second, before he enthusiastically looked at the femme again.

"Oh, yes. Important detail that your favorite 'Con doesn't want to hear. He's being used, ma'am."

"How do you…?"

"I've got my sources."

At that moment, the door opened and Knock Out came in, shutting the door as soon as possible. He was quivering from fear and was breathing heavily, implying that he was running. Then he looked at Swindle and pointed at the door with his thumb, saying: "You know her. Stall for time", he said and Swindle stood up, heading outside.

Knock Out approached the femme and looked like he wanted to tell her something, but he didn't have the guts to.

"Let's check you up. One last time, I swear", he sadly said and Arcee lowered her optic ridges as she realized that Knock Out wasn't even in the mood to boast off. Something must have happened, and she was terribly afraid what it was. Something was telling her that it was tied to Starscream.

* * *

As the salesperson got out of the medical bay, he immediately faced two Autobots who were about to break down the door. They both stopped as they saw the mech in front of them.

"Move it, 'Con. Official badaft business", the young, tall mech proudly smiled and grabbed a sword from his back, but got stopped by the femme who was standing right next to him, still charmingly smiling.

"There's no need to fight, Slick. This guy's harmless", she said and Sideswipe lowered an optic ridge, relaxing, but frowning.

"How's business going, Swindle?" she smilingly asked and Swindle smiled back and leaned at the door to prevent them from going into it. Sideswipe was watching every movement he made.

 _"She calls **him** by name?"_

"You know, same old, Miss Windblade. What brings you to this place?"

"Starscream, as usual. We tend to meet up every time he has something up his sleeves, right?" she asked and put her servos at her hips. Sideswipe's frown intensified and he leaned closer to her.

"I don't trust this guy. Look at his face. He's hiding something", Sideswipe whispered and Windblade turned to face him.

"He's a marketer", she said and Sideswipe nodded.

"Explains everything."

"Why don't I show you where the seeker is, just for good old times? For free, of course", he said and marched down the hallways, followed by the Autobots.

 _"Who'd trust a 'Con named Swindle? Come on!"_

* * *

"Listen. I don't know how to tell this, but… you don't have much time", Knock Out suddenly said as he put the cables off her. The femme widened her optics as she heard that, but wasn't too surprised. She anticipated something like that would happen, as she couldn't even stand up without getting dizzy. She just kept lying on the floor.

The red mech kneeled down to face her and artificially smiled to make her feel better.

"I can't help it, and neither can anyone else. The dark energon that you got from Starscream went into your system, but your spark refused to accept it into your body, so that it stayed at the same place for quite some time, tainting the cells that were around it and thus poisoning you. Some of your vital organs are slowing down and I can't seem to find away to inject healthy energon into you. It would take a miracle to heal you, and we just lost our last chance of getting one when Starscream was ill just like that, though he didn't die because his system already absorbed the purple colored energon."

He waited a few seconds before continuing, checking if she was ready to take in another bad news. She wasn't looking at him; she was lying on the floor, facing the wall beside her. She seemed distant, but he knew she was listening. She would always listen.

"Whatever happens, I want you to know that Starscream wanted the best for you, and he still wants it, although he's going insane. And just as I promised, I'll try to stop him from harming anyone."

"Forget that", Arcee stated and finally looked at him, "keep an optic on Shockwave."

Knock Out looked at her, clearly confused.

She sat up, even though he specifically told her not to, and leaned against the grid so that she was facing away from the red mech who turned out to be her friend after all.

"He was the one who planned all of this. Starscream's just his vessel of some sort, as he doesn't want to get the energon of the fallen onto his hands. He'll probably use that machine for his own good."

Knock Out smiled at her and leaned at the grid as well, so that they were back to back.

"I can't refuse your last request, I guess."

They didn't say anything for a cycle. Arcee was close to tears from fear, but didn't want to appear weak, so she kept them in. The fear of dying wasn't really on her mind till she realized it was too close for her to dodge. She hated the fact that her light were going out this way, and not on the battlefield or while being with the one she loved the most.

"Another thing", Knock Out silently said and Arcee opened her sad optics again.

Knock Out heavily sighed and Arcee prepared to hear another sentence that would probably completely destroy her.

He silently chuckled and said: "You're sparked. And the child absorbed the dark energon, implying that its cells are deformed and it'll grow ridiculously fast."

There was silence for a cycle before Knock out heard sobbing all of a sudden. He lowered his optic ridges while sweetly and artificially smiling as he knew he couldn't do anything to make her feel better.

* * *

 **QEB CBBIP**


	11. Chapter 11

_**Don't Let Go**_

* * *

"No. There's… got to be a way. I didn't kill all these people for no reason! You can't say that!"

Shockwave just looked at the slim seeker and shrugged his shoulders while carrying a container of green, synthetic energon. He walked over to a big, strange device covered by linen and poured the liquid into a visible hole on it. Starscream watched him as he did that with an angry expression on his faceplates.

"I didn't hire you for neglecting everything you promised!"

Shockwave got back to the worktable and started picking some random weapons to avoid conflict.

"You promised I could save her! YOU PROMISED SHE WOULDN'T DIE!"

Shockwave wasn't saying anything and they stayed in silence for a few cycles. They were located in Shockwave's lab, where everything was quite messy as the scientist didn't have time to clean up after work. He was working all the time, from sunrise to sunset, sometimes during the night as well. The floor was covered in energon in all kinds of color. Across the room, there were berths covered by linen, which had blue stains on it. Something big was located beneath them. He was rarely leaving his lab since he was dedicated to his research and wanted to build the Time Bridge as soon as possible. Starscream wanted to appreciate him, he really did, but he just couldn't as he found out that the only wish he had with this was going to fail. The mech would cry and shout, but the thing was, he couldn't anymore. He couldn't feel anything positive anymore, neither sadness. His feelings of fear, of remorse, of love, of friendship, of dread, of tolerance, everything disappeared. Although he couldn't feel anything anymore, he still _knew_ he loved the femme, and if she wouldn't die, his feelings would get back anyways. She literally was everything that was important to him now.

"You said you could save her just in time! You said…"

"I implied lots of affairs, Starscream. I did not mention they would all succeed."

"Yet everything succeeds… except of the primary plan. The reason I'm here in the first place! I freed you so we could be… comrades again. I didn't want you to rust in that jail! I knew you were just a blindfolded scientist who was following Megatron's shadow just like I did! And believe me, when you know how it feels to be in a situation, you have to do something. I didn't want you to experience the pain that I did… But perhaps, you would have learned something from it, unlike now!

Shockwave calmly put a weapon he was examining down on the table and quietly looked back to see the seeker standing and facing his direction. Then he straightened and approached the "leader" of the group.

"You wanted power."

Starscream widened his optics.

"You wanted to have control over us. Over everything."

Starscream looked away.

"Do you not know that we all know what is going on? Yes, you do have affection for the femme lying in stasis and you basically are a single entity, but there is more to it than just that, is it not?"

Starscream looked at him again, but this time, he just frowned. He puffed his chest out and proudly marched out of the laboratory, without saying anything. After he was gone, Shockwave looked at a covered monitor and uncovered it. The monitor displayed the femme's room and her state, and judging by it, he determined that the femme was getting weaker and weaker, almost reaching the lowest state. He knew it was all an ugly formula, but he wanted to go back in time. He needed to stop the Autobots from ever winning. He needed to stop them from killing Megatron.

"It will not take long and all of this will finally pay off. The femme will soon shut down eternally, and we will finally be able to use the last kind of energon which is needed to go back in time. Just a drop of the energon of a deceased in the system and we are able to change everything. Just a few moments longer, lord Megatron. We will rule over the planet once again, and this time, there will be no interferences.

* * *

The door suddenly opened and the blue femme opened an optic. She was overheating and couldn't cool down, her spark, though, was beating at an unusually slow pace. She couldn't feel anything at all, just the joy of seeing her Spark Mate enter the room. She knew what he did. And she forgave him.

As soon as he saw that nobody was in the room, he stopped pretending he was alright and harshly bended as he couldn't keep up anymore. He heavily gasped and coughed before limping over to the femme, who was still located in the small cage. This was the first time he saw her for solar cycles. Yet he didn't feel anything except fate for the fact that she was slowly dying. Slowly and painfully. It was terrible, how this was going. He remembered that a few solar cycles ago, they were still the happy-go-lucky pair of the Autobot group and used to slack off all the time. They all tried to avoid them as they were acting too lovey-dovey, and they _loved_ it. But now? She was lying there in front of him, in her dying moment. He somehow felt that it was the last time he'd see her, so he knelt down. Arcee, despite the clear suffering, smiled.

"So… you decided to come back to me…?" she silently asked and Starscream closed his optics in pain from hearing her feeble voice. He lowered his head and sat there, without saying anything.

"It's OK, I forgive you."

Starscream remained silent. The floor beneath him was cold and dusty, and he realized that she was lying on it for a long time, probably worsening her state. But it was too late now.

"I know. Your spark is beating at the same pace as mine", he said and smiled towards her. Arcee felt that the smile was fake, but smiled back anyways. After a few seconds, her smile disappeared and she looked away.

"You probably know that I'm…"

Starscream nodded.

"Knock Out told me."

"Sure he did", she responded and half-closed her optics.

Starscream widely smiled, stating: "I'll lose two Cybertronians I care for in one day, huh?"

Arcee shrugged her shoulders and Starscream suddenly frowned as he felt his sins hitting his spark, his mind and then crawling on his back. The tears showed up in his optics again and he realized he wasn't completely gone yet… for now.

"Told you we shouldn't have done that."

"It was my idea. And my wish", she said and smiled as she looked back into his optics. Starscream smiled again.

"Remember when we used to watch the stars every night, together, alone? No one wanted to break us apart back then… I was so blind."

Arcee smiled at his sad expression, "Who would? I mean… you talked about the names and origin of those little bright spots. Not everyone can bear listening to it. You've gotta have certain strength to endure such lessons."

"We… used to tell us stories up there, on the roof. How I always wanted to overthrow Megatron, failed, cried, and then repeat that… the circle of life", he said and sweetly smiled as he felt something again.

"How I wished to visit the other planets up there," she said as her smiled disappeared for a moment, "well, that'll happen soon, I guess."

"I said I'll never leave you. I'll always be with you, no matter what. And we'll visit those planets one day together, as well. I won't give up on trying to find a cure for you, I promise that. For as I said, my life would never be the same without you. I said that I'll be there, protecting you, and if you fall, I'll be there to catch you… I never lied."

Arcee smiled.

"You'll be fine, I promise. You will", he said as a tear slid down his faceplate. He suddenly smiled, saying: "If this tear falls on you, perhaps you'll get cured. Like in those stories you used to hear from those humans…"

Arcee sweetly smiled at him.

"You were the only reason I joined the Autobots, you know that. You were the reason why I wished to stay in this world, alive… That's why I _am_ alive right now, you see?! Arcee, you can do that too! Just… just don't let go…"

"Do you have to turn everything into such drama?" she asked and hid her wet optics for a while, "Do I look like I can handle it…?"

Starscream opened his mouth to say something, but then he just heavily sighed.

"No. No, you don't. Not with my darn dark energon tainting your spark."

Arcee put her servo on his faceplate and removed the tear from it. Then she sweetly smiled yet again.

"I'm not afraid. I got to spend my life with you, even though it was just a stellar cycle or so. I'm… genuinely happy."

Starscream took her servo and put it back to her, smiling and saying: "How can you be so… positive about that? What I did was truly horrible. Didn't anybody tell you how many Cybertronians I had killed? How many lives I have stolen so far, while they too, had families and friends? I destroyed half the planet. I destroyed your home. I… even destroyed your friends. Arcee, even I can't forgive myself. How could you…?"

As his optics got wet again, her smile disappeared. After a few seconds of silence, she just smiled again and closed her optics.

"I know for whom you did that, Knock Out explained everything… And even though I can't appreciate that you did all this horribleness just for me, and never will be able to, and even though you acted like a monster… I can't force myself not to forgive you. I… I love you and… I know that nothing can be done anymore. And since it's all practically over, there is no need to be morose, is there?"

Starscream shook his head in a sad manner. But he smiled anyways.

"That's not you anymore."

Arcee smiled.

"That's what I think as well, but… My spark tells otherwise."

He soon started shaking from sadness on which she didn't respond at all. She knew how hard it was to him, not only this, but life in general. He had taken the wrong paths his whole life, and he couldn't change anything. He suddenly tore down the cage door and wrapped his servos around the femme, crying out. He didn't want to let go. But the Autobots which were fighting against them were waiting for him. Whatever was about to happen, he knew he wasn't ready. Even if everything else went well, he wasn't ready. So he kept them all waiting, just to stay a little longer in her weak, ice cold servos which were trembling from weakness as well as from sadness. He hated for being so weak and hated he decisions he made. As he stayed in her servos, she hugged him tighter, and he finally closed his optics, after such a long time. He widely smiled as his spark cried out.

He didn't want to let go, ever.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Nothing Else Matters Now**_

* * *

„I never thought it could all come back so soon… I thought the only Decepticons in the universe were the ones we were hunting down at Earth… the refugees… yet we were wrong. Perhaps… perhaps I didn't quite get the message, Optimus", the young yellow leader said as Optimus looked down at him, seeing that Bumblebee was truly sorry for what was going on around them. Optimus put his big, heavy hand on the Bot's shoulder and slightly smiled, so the muscle car smiled back while grabbing the weapon he would usually use only while hunting for Decepticon refugees. As he did that, the rest of the team smiled as well, full of hope, and approached Bumblebee and the arisen Prime. Smokescreen was, of course, the first one to slime himself up to Optimus Prime, just like he wasn't battling a horde of Vehicons a few seconds ago, but with his agility it wasn't a problem to defeat them all at once at all.

They were standing in a corner, so that the Decepticons wouldn't see them as the shadows swallowed their image. It was convenient for them as well that the ship was so huge. The Autobots who were still battling were causing the Vehicons to shoot madly at all directions, leaving the others no room but shadows.

Grimlock ran straight through the two seekers who looked just like Starscream, but with other primal colors, and stopped right in front of the small group, wagging his thick tail.

"All right! Let's punch some bad guys in the face! Aargh! Argh!" he practiced his punches right in front of the group and everyone just watched him for a second.

"Hahah… Sorry", the big green Dinobot said and let himself fall down at his backside to sit down. As he did that, Strongarm came running and hit herself to the wall, earning a few odd looks.

"What…? It's never safe enough", she said and approached Optimus as well, leading Smokescreen to look angrily at her. Strongarm disliked him just as much as she disliked Sideswipe, even though she just met with him a few solar cycles ago.

Ultra Magnus was still in the battlefield and it looked like he'd stay there for a long time. Ratchet and Drift were battling alongside him, trying to reduce the damage coming to him.

Bulkhead was still punching everything that got into his way.

From the deeper shadows, another two figures emerged, carrying something in their servos. Strongarm rolled her optics as she saw another bother coming at her. As they approached the rest of the team, they let their captive fall down at the floor. He yelped and then chuckled a little, trying to hide his despair as he looked upwards seeing a bunch of Autobots angrily looking at him. The only ones whom he recognized were Bumblebee and Optimus.

"Hello… ladies and gentlebots…" he tried yet another time before crashing at the floor again, "nope. I think I'm out o business."

Bumblebee looked at the team of two and proudly smirked at them, leading Sideswipe to straighten. The rebel Bot quickly glanced at Strongarm's jealous face before facing their leader again as Windblade elbowed him.

"Good job on capturing the Decepticon responsible for the force field, you two."

"It wasn't particularly hard. We managed to get him to talk by simply threatening him."

"I'm… not much of a fighter", Swindle said into the ground as he didn't dare to stand up and he heard someone approaching him.

"Oh, same here! We should totally share our stories sometime… Wait! I've got it… We could talk about weaponry! No… Yes! Wait, no… You're more of a practical guy aren't you…?"

Swindle gave no response at Fixit's blabbering.

"No? Oh, well. Ships? Maybe? Like… spacecraft, I mean, not the actual… Or no?"

Swindle still didn't even think of answering the blabbermouth.

"Oh! Colors! Everybody loves colors!"

"Not now, Fixit", Bumblebee said and Fixit frowned and got away from the mercenary.

"I'm sorry we didn't find the location of the head of the group. We thought he knew where the leader of this mess here is… Turns out we were wrong. He led us to nothingness and eventually tried to sell us car paint," she looked at Sideswipe who suspiciously smiled at her, "so we took him instead. He didn't listen to us, so we thought that he might listen to the big guys."

"Heh, big guys…" Bumblebee repeated while chuckling a bit, but coughed for attention as soon as he saw that Optimus was looking weirdly at him.

"It was… quite chic car paint at a low price…" Sideswipe said and Bumblebee just looked at him. He then crouched to face the purple entrepreneur, who didn't even think of opposing to the questions he was about to recieve. He didn't even care anymore. No business, no dignity for him, it seemed.

"…Swindle. Where is she?"

"Who?"

"You know whom I'm talking about, the last team Prime member."

Swindle looked upwards and smiled at the yellow mech whose expression shifted into a confused one.

"Hey, aren't you the guy who was responsible for me getting captured by the Elite Guard stellar cycles ago? Good old times, huh?"

"Don't try to change the subject now, Swindle. I know your… um… swindling."

" _Clever wordplay_ ", Sideswipe whispered to Windblade who didn't response in any way.

"It is understandable for us that you want to protect the others by keeping the secret to yourself, Swindle, but as a family fighting for the rights of all Cybertronian beings and fighting for freedom and against slavery, we will stand our ground. There is no time for trying to escape the situation we are in. You have to tell us everything you know right now, or else we will all perish. And you, Swindle, you are under our control right now, so you go whether down with us, or stay with us and fight among us", Optimus gave a speech and Strongarm's optics lit up.

"Wow… Optimus gave one of his famous speeches…"

" **Wow, you're even lamer than I thought…** " Smokescreen and Sideswipe said at the same time, laughed and fist bumped. The young police cadet frowned at them and punched first Sideswipe's, and then Smokescreen's servo.

"Ouch… Aren't we supposed to be a team?" Smokescreen asked and Sideswipe cockily smiled, half-closing his optics.

"We are, but… she's not very good at it."

Strongarm growled and Bumblebee looked angrily at them.

"Cut it you tw- I mean, three! There's no time for that right now", he scolded the three of them and they all looked away, frowning. Sideswipe then got next to Smokescreen.

"We'll totally wrap her in toilet paper when she'll be asleep tonight."

Smokescreen smirked: "Totally."

Swindle finally decided to get up, stretching and loudly yawning, like he tried to mock them. After a few seconds, he leaned his elbow at the red and blue Prime and smugly looked up to meet his optics.

"Yeah, and what's in it for me, huh? It's always… _quid pro quo_ with me, don't you know? I'm quite sure you do."

Optimus frowned and the small mech got scared, so he backed off a little. As he did, someone jumped at him from behind, holding a blade in front of his neck, smugly smiling.

"How about… we let you live?" Windblade silently asked and the mech's optics narrowed as he struggled to get free from her for a second. As she released him, he stumbled into the center of the small group and looked at every single one before frowning and crossing his servos at his chest, heavily sighing.

"Fine, fine. As long as it keeps my business alive."

He didn't say anything, so Sideswipe asked: "So?"

Swindle hesitated for another few seconds before reopening his purple optics and looking straight upwards to meet the big Prime's optics. Up to that point, he never really thought about how small he actually was.

"Frankly, I don't care for my 'teammates' as they don't give a frag about me, it's like that here. They are all after one thing: power. All of them are actually tryin' to get to the top; every single member. The leader is, for now, Starscream, whom you already know, I guess, then there's Shockwave, the scientist who planned all of this coming, then there's Airachnid, who just came back to get rid of every single Autobot… Thundercracker and Skywarp, Starscream's… whatever they are, the only thing I know is that I keep mixing their names up… There's Knock Out, the medic of the group, Vehicons obsessing with the leader, Soundwave whose information I'm sharing right now… I got it by hacking into his system using my special devices, which are on a low price today, by the way… and more, I don't know. What I know is that the femme you're looking for is seriously sick and everybody, and by everybody I mean Starscream, who told us to call him like this to emphasize everyone's 'unity', is going nuts and bolts about it."

As Bumblebee wanted to say something, the mercenary took air in and continued the story, despite no one actually asking him to: "But the real boss here is Shockwave. He's the guy with the puppets, pulling the strings, or what not… I have no idea how this saying goes. Anyhow, the scientist keeps everything under control by manipulating our real leader, so he could collect enough energon to start the machine they are working at."

Bumblebee wanted to ask, but Swindle continued on his own: "The machine extracts a Cybertronian's life energy, and combined with Soundwave's ground breaking Ground Bridging ability, it creates a time machine which enables the user to travel through time… But it functions only once as it requires hundreds of victims for the normal energon to be extracted from, people who consumed red energon at at least one point in their lives, um… synthetic energon is needed and they had the formula from before and… yeah, a person who contains dark energon."

"Dark energon?" Bumblebee worryingly asked and looked at Smokescreen who narrowed his optics.

"Wait… so… they recaptured Megatron?" he asked while looking at Sideswipe who suddenly seemed scared.

"That would not be plausible… Megatron has ultimately left this planet and is not planning on coming back. In his alt mode, he can reach maximal speed in no time and can withstand even the hardest of hits… It would take a huge amount of speed to catch up to him after such a long time, even with red energon…" Optimus said and Swindle put his servos at his back.

"Oh, no, that's not it, actually."

The leader looked back down at him.

"You see… there were quite some complications with the dark energon, since for it to work perfectly, it needs some kind of… vessel? I guess?" Swindle continued.

"So?" Sideswipe asked again and Swindle looked back at him.

"Sorry, time's up. You need to find that last puzzle tile by yourself. Slag this scrap, I'm out", he said and tried to walk away, but Grimlock stepped right in front of him and growled. Then, he hugged him and pulled him up, so that he couldn't do anything anymore. The green Dinobot then widely smiled, showing his sharp teeth.

"Got you, Minicon."

"Minicon?!" Swindle exclaimed and started to flail around, even though he knew it was useless. Fixit's optics sparkled.

"If you tell us the last part, you are free. Free as in selling your products", Bumblebee stated and Strongarm looked at him with widened optics.

"But, sir! He's a widely searched black marketer! Protocol A paragraph 46 clearly stated that-"

"Strongarm, just this once", Bumblebee said, clearly forgetting that Grimlock was a criminal once as well, and she had to scrap the idea of getting him into jail as well. She listened to him anyways as she saw that he really cared about whom the saying was about, so she just withdrew and let Grimlock put the entrepreneur's small body down.

A smug smile appeared on Swindle's gray faceplates.

"The vessel, huh? Starscream, he was the first one our scientist thought about sacrificing. But upon being captured and saved by the gray seeker, he decided to scheme another plan, knowing all about Starscream's feelings."

"The high-heeled freak has feelings?" Smokescreen asked and everyone just looked at him, so he shut his mouth.

"I don't know. But he obviously has for _her_."

"Is anybody else confused and doesn't understand a word he said? Me either", Sideswipe stated and crossed his servos, looking into the distance.

"Her?" Bumblebee asked in a scared and sad way.

"The femme you're looking for. The blue, feisty one."

Everyone stopped and stared into the Con's direction and he smiled as he thought they stared because of his statement. He kept thinking that as long as a sinister chuckle didn't come from right behind him. The salesman flinched before slowly turning around, facing a silver mech with a long chin and blood red optics which almost didn't shine at all. His claws were already close to grasping his throat, but it looked like he was holding back, for some reason. The winged mech was bended, and his creepy grin looked like it had no intention to fade away. There he was, the leader of the newly formed Decepticons, in all of his miserable glory.

"I knew you would betray me sooner or later. JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!" the seeker exclaimed and tried to hit the small Con who already bended to protect himself from the upcoming hit, but he just heard a clang above him, so he reopened his big optics. Optimus was looking right into his optics as he was blocking the seeker's deadly hit with his servo, as he was unable to turn it into a sword on time. He still didn't recover from coming back to life.

"Bumblebee, take the team away from here!"

"But, Optimus… You can't-"

"I already did, Bumblebee! Leave as quickly as possible!" he yelled and tried to hit the silver mech who didn't seem very stable at mind at that point, but the seeker quickly dodged his attack and fired a missile right at him. Bumblebee called out his name, but knew Optimus was going to be fine, so he did as he told him to. They all started running in order to avoid conflict. Grimlock picked Swindle up and threw him over his shoulder while in Dino form, so Swindle started flailing again.

"Hey! But I'm one of the bad guys!" he said as he was dragged away.

The team almost reached the escape pods, but they got blocked by a huge amount of highly trained Vehicons ready for combat. To avoid them, they split into small groups, but ended up being circled anyways. Sideswipe was sticking close to the femme he admired, Strongarm ended up with Bumblebee and the blue mech she disliked and Grimlock followed the Minicon who didn't know what he was doing at that point.

* * *

"Ah, look. The ones who Starscream hates. But I hate you more, for I am far better than Starscream, so you should fear me. Anyways, pleasure to get rid of you two", Thundercracker said as soon as he pushed himself through the crowd to reach Windblade and the young mech hiding behind her. After a few seconds, another seeker got to them, but this one had a darker silver and purple color scheme. He firstly looked cowardly, but then he teleported right behind the red, punky mech and kicked him so that he fell right on top of the jet.

"Sorry…" he silently said as Windblade pushed him off of herself. She soon stood up and started the fight with the self-obsessed mech in front of her. He was, however, swiftly dodging her attacks without any difficulties.

"So… I remember hearing about you from Starscream… Were you really _that_ annoying?" he asked while dodging, but the femme didn't stop pulling her punches.

"Seems like you still are", he said and tried to punch her as well, but she caught his hand and smugly smiled as his smirk vanished.

"Annoying? I wouldn't say annoying. I'd say determined", she said and punched the center of his face, leading him to squeal.

* * *

The team now led by Grimlock didn't have problems at all. As the Dinobot was running, all the Vehicons just kept flying though the air as they couldn't even land a single hit on him. As for Swindle, he was hit every time a Vehicon would bounce off the bulky gentle giant.

"Why… was I… pulled into this…?!" he asked at one point and Fixit thought of it as his duty to answer his question. He was calmly rolling after the giant metal tyrannosaurus rex, not paying any attention to the Vehicons in pain.

"It takes suffering to get into an Autobot team. Take me for example. My ship suddenly crash-landed on Earth and I had to contact the Autobot base… but I couldn't, so I kept contacting no one and nothing, hoping someone would come… oh, wait! That's the wrong story… I already was an Autobot back then! Whoops. No, no, the story begins on a far of planet named Cybertron… Oh, wait. I'm such a dummy. We ARE on the far planet of Cybertron! So it's not even far… It's birr… um, fir… I mean… HERE!"

"Oh, Primus have mercy… kill me now…" Swindle whispered to himself while clenching his hands.

* * *

"Bumblebee, long time no see… I've been looking forward to race someone… no one's as good as me. Not that I'm saying you're as good as me. Though… you _are_ close", Knock Out said while holding his infamous weapon. Bumblebee narrowed his optics as he firstly looked at him, then at the black spider next to him. She was looking at the yellow Bot like she wanted to cut him in half, so he looked back at Knock Out, who suddenly jumped at him and made them roll aside, leaving Strongarm and Smokescreen to deal with Airachnid by their own.

After a few cycles of rolling and strangling each other, Bumblebee took the lead and pinned the red mech to the ground. He then smirked and narrowed his optics, grabbing his servos in a considerable fashion. He clenched them just enough for Bumblebee's energon to show up before he decided to talk to the new leader of the Autobots.

"Don't you realize? I _made_ you win so you could listen out."

Bumblebee remained silent, watching every move of the red Aston Martin.

"Arcee is _not_ going to survive the night, for Starscream's fragging dark energon got into her spark and tainted her whole system! She can barely stand up, you hear?! All I wanna do is make it up somehow… so I'll extract the child from her spark as she told me to and you, my friend, are going to take care of it, understood?!"

As Knock Out said that, Bumblebee's optics widened.

"Wait, child?! No one said anything about a…"

"Cause nobody knows. I know it. She knows it. Starscream knows it. You know it. That's it."

Bumblebee kept staring into his optics, so he suddenly grabbed him by his shoulders and threw him over himself, jumping up at his feet.

"Now, where were we? Oh, yes. I remember," he said as he approached the yellow muscle car who couldn't find the strength to stand up, "I was winning. Sorry, Bee. I got a direct order from the leader, saying I should… you know, win. And I don't wanna lose my precious looks… Or my head."

* * *

He was standing on top of the Nemesis, looking down at the Cybertronians brutally fighting till death. Although Autobots were clearly outnumbered, they weren't giving up. Instead, they were tossing the Vehicons around like they weren't even fit for fighting.

The scene looked desperate as everyone was fighting over something they couldn't even understand, and the fight was going on for megacycles. Energon was all over the place, being either from Vehicons, Decepticons or Autobots. Even the seeker's hands were holding a quantity of heroic energon, spilled because of Starscream himself. Yet something was preventing him from feeling anything for the merciful Autobot who could have gotten rid of him, but instead insisted they choose peace instead of war.

"Such dumb excuse for knowing he'll lose…" Starscream said as his spark was heating up. Deep down, he knew the only reason the Prime didn't end his life was because he had known that the seeker wasn't completely gone yet. There was still a flash of hope in him, a hope of returning to the light side and leaving the Decepticons to rest. But he didn't want to give up now that he was so close. He wanted the plan to work. He wanted the femme to stay alive.

Thinking of her, he suddenly realized that a weak, bended frame was coming out of her shelter, heading towards the machine that they needed to bend the quality of space and time. As he realized that it was in fact Arcee who was slowly limping towards their creation which was supposed to save her.

" _Could it be that she is trying to… no. NO!"_ he thought and quickly leaped off the top, barely managing to land on his feet. As she was getting closer to the machine, he realized that Arcee was almost gray. There was no beautiful dark blue on her anymore, and her optics' light was slowly fading. As he saw that, he felt his light fading as well. Rushing through the crowd and pushing Vehicons away from his path, he completely forgot to watch out for any incoming attack. The only thing he cared about now was his Spark Mate who was trying to sacrifice herself… until he felt a terrible pain at his side. He quickly glanced aside, seeing Smokescreen literally putting hands over his mouth as he saw what he did, before he fell to the ground. Everything soon went black as he felt his body getting paralyzed.

* * *

" _You… You look just like me… but… maler…" she said as she was looking at the sinister figure in front of her, his face still leaking blue energon. He quietly chuckled as the slim silver femme didn't know how to respond. She looked full of fear as he pulled her up. Seeing how small she was reminded him of someone he used to know…_

" _I'm not helping anyone. I never was, I never will. Everything's falling apart for a reason. Everything happens for a reason…", he said and quickly pulled his servos back to himself, slowly backing off into the shadows. As he was leaving her, he felt something striking his spark. Did he… feel something again…? Or was it just his imagination?_

" _Wait, don't leave…" she suddenly said as she fell to her knees again, "my family needs you."_

 _He sinisterly chuckled._

" _WHY would they need ME? I caused the entire 'family' to break apart. It was ME who ordered Shockwave to keep on doing what he started to do, it was ME who wanted the old, evil Megatron to come back. I didn't know it would all end like this… but… Frankly, dear, I don't give a frag about others anymore. This is my mistake and my win. I… I am the true villain of this story. And you know it, so who told you to come here?!"_

 _She didn't respond._

" _Was it your wish to see the person who let your mother pass away…?" he said as his voice quivered, "Was it a mistake? Guess I'll never know."_

 _As he said that, he started going towards the void, but was stopped by the young femme who suddenly grabbed his hand as he tried to leave forever. He turned back to see her wide, wet optics that were looking at him in despair, trying to get him to help her. Her small, narrow lips were quivering from sadness and something stroke his spark again._

" _Memories. Oh, how they pain me…" he stated as he pushed her away to let her fall to the ground. She yelped and her quiet, yet clear voice beard striking resemblance to the femme he loved before. She suddenly started to cry and his grin disappeared._

" _Please… if you don't help now, everyone will be dead… within a few megacycles… I'm not able… to…"_

" _Do I look like I care?" he asked and put his thin servos at his hips, "there's no way you could convince me to go help some random Cybertronians who tried to murder me before! Don't you know that it is their fault I am like this now?! Don't you know they gave me everything, and then took everything from me, just to make me feel loved just before… it all went to…" he said and fell to his knees just like her, his blazing optics filling with hot, steaming tears._

" _I gave it my all… and they still made me kill her! I killed my own Spark Mate!" he cried out and covered his face, "I was once a being of feeling as well, but they… they…"_

 _He suddenly stopped as she got closer to him._

" _No… I…" he said as she tightly hugged him, crying as well. He, to her surprise, hugged her back._

" _It wasn't your fault… father… It was just a game of inconvenient coincidences…"_

 _After such a long time, he smiled. He smiled and hugged her even tighter._

" _I never thought I'd see you… Not in my lifetime, at least… And look at you, how you've grown!" he proudly said as his spark started beating at a normal pace again. He pushed her off a little, just to see her wet, smiling face._

" _You remind me so much of…" he said as she sweetly smiled, but stopped before saying her name as he knew he'd cry like a little sparkling if he'd speak her name._

 _She was quiet._

" _What idiot told you I was still alive…? Wait, was it that red, self-absorbed guy?"_

 _She smiled and simply nodded, so he smiled even wider._

" _And you said that they… they…" he stuttered as he realized that he still felt something for them. It wasn't love, it wasn't friendship, but it was something strong enough to make him believe that there was still hope. He then smiled again and kissed his daughter's forehead, making her flinch._

" _Thank you for reviving me", he said and she widely smiled before he embraced her again._

" _I… thought you were gone… dead… and I… I…"_

" _Wake up", she suddenly said and he widely opened his optics as he heard that. Scared for everything he held dear, he pushed her away again to see her smile slowly disappearing, while her faceplates were getting wet from tears again, "Wake up, dad."_

"… _Wake up…? Wh-What do you mean…?"_

" _I'm… I'm not real dad. You're going crazy…"_

 _In a split second, everything was torn away from him again, and the lights of his optics faded. The room they were in suddenly got darker and he finally realized it wasn't a room they were in. It was simple void. The void which was located in his spark._

" _I am just your perception of what I might look like when I grow up…", she weakly smiled, "…but I'm not growing up. Ever."_

 _He didn't respond, his hands just started clutching her servos tighter._

" _I am an illusion created by your spark, as it is connected to yours… I am real for you, but for no one else", she said and smiled as she lowered her head, "all the things I said before, it wasn't for the sake of my friends. It was for the sake of_ _ **your**_ _friends. THEY are the only ones keeping you alive at this point. Don't you see?" she raised her head and widely smiled, "I am you and mom combined, but am speaking as a combination of all your friends!"_

" _But I don't have any…"_

" _I'm a real crybaby, scared for my life… it is just like Skywarp, ain't it?"_

" _How do you… Why do you?!"_

" _Raised by Ratchet, by Knock Out and Bumblebee, the three Autobots who always tried to understand you! Subconsciously, you always knew Ratchet was fond of you."_

" _I-I…"_

" _Young and playful… But also a bit nosy, isn't that Smokescreen?"_

" _STOP BOMBARDING ME WITH STUFF I DON'T GET!" he yelled as her figure was getting less and less vivid._

" _Maler? Is that even a word, Bulkhead?" she sweetly smiled and tilted her head as she asked that, making the seeker frown._

" _Everything else? Your Spark Mate, dad."_

 _Starscream's stare intensified._

" _Are you implying this is all just a dream?"_

" _No", she said, "it is your view of life. I am… your consciousness right now. It's fading away, but… as soon as you wake up; everything's going to be ok. I am a representation of what you wanted me to be when I grow up… But I don't exist. I never will. You might don't want to realize this… but you already did, didn't you? That's why I'm telling you this. You KNOW I'm just a fiction of your imagination."_

" _I don't know anything, young lady, and if you're going to disappear forever when I wake up, I'm not waking up, by all means necessary", he tried to act like a father figure._

 _She giggled._

" _I don't exist. I never will, because everything is going to start anew. The bloom of love shall disappear soon, but perhaps not forever. I don't know what's going to happen… You are not certain yet, but you know you'll see her again, don't you?"_

" _I…"_

" _And even if she sacrifices herself right now, you can still save her, can't you?"_

" _But I can't save YOU", he said and grabbed her servos a tiny moment before she turned into dust._

" _You already did."_

* * *

The mech felt pain in his spark again, but immediately widely opened his optics to look over to the time machine which was being constructed, only to realize Arcee was limping straight towards him. The scared and scarred seeker swiftly stood up and started limping towards the hurt and ill femme whose optics were filling up with tears as she was getting closer to him. Even though he knew she was scared for him, he also knew the tears were because of the fact that every part of her body hurt as she was forcing herself to get to him. He couldn't hear anything except his own fast spark beat which was slowly getting more and more silent. Starscream saw everything that was going on around him: from the fighting to the blasting, but he didn't care for any of that. Vehicons were pushing his weak, hurt body aside as he was slowly trying to reach the blue Autobot. His face looked like all life energy was sucked out of him, but he refused to let his optics lose their color in front of Arcee. She suddenly smiled as she finally realized that it was him who fell down before, and she soon started to rush towards him while limping. Vehicons were hitting her from all sides as well, but she could only see one path in front of her: the path leading towards him. As soon as they got close enough to each other, Arcee's optics wet up and she started to fall down, but the mech fell to his knees to catch her right at time. He tightly hugged her as he feared it was really the last time, that time. He knew what he had to do, his consciousness told him. He felt her weak servos wrapping around his neck.

As they were hugging, they completely failed to realize that the shooting stopped as everyone looked at them. Neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons could believe that the leader of the Decepticons would actually care that much about a proud member of the Autobots, that much in fact that they'd stop their long-lasting, strict war just to greet each other. Knock Out and Bumblebee stopped fighting as well a few feet away from them. They both smiled at the pair for a second before continuing their fist fight, rolling around the ship's floor.

"I know you don't want me to do this, but… we have no choice", she said and he softly and carefully pushed her away to see her wonderful blue optics looking straight into his blood red ones, "all the pain we suffered… all the things I had to get through just to find out that even the sparkling was not safe… I can't let my state now go to waste…"

"Do you consider you last living moments a waste, dear Arcee?" he suddenly asked and her soft smile disappeared as his expression was saddening.

"We would be better off if none of this would ever have happened…"

"But if you get into that machine and we managed to succeed by traveling through time… What will happen then? Won't it all be the same? Won't I make the same, stupid mistakes yet again? Do you want me to suffer all my life, knowing I had killed you…?"

Arcee sweetly smiled again and meekly touched his scar with her index finger, sliding the finger down it. He frowned and narrowed his optics from sadness, looking down to hide his fear of what might happen. She then softly giggled.

"And what if everything went wrong? And what if I don't return? Come on, Starscream. It's better for me to die than for everyone else…" as she said that, Starscream looked around himself, "they are gonna fight till death anyways. Countless of lives taken away just like that… there's nothing worse. My death won't be so tragic. Do you understand?" she asked and his gaze fell at her again.

"Why are you always so reasonable?" he said and he felt a hot tear sliding down his faceplate. She hugged him one last time before she slowly closed her optics. He soon couldn't hear her spark beat anymore. Meekly smiling, he gently laid her on the floor and stood up at his weak legs, looking around himself. Every face was looking at him, expecting some kind of order. He then grinned, knowing everything was going to disappear in a split second.

"STOP FIGHTING!" he suddenly said and every last Vehicon stopped, "Don't you realize?! Everything's falling apart? And why?! Just because I was actually so dumb to reassemble the Decepticons?! NO! It's because we all don't know how to resolve our issues… I… I know that now", he said and sweetly smiled at Smokescreen who was just in his sight. He looked away.

"I just wanted freedom… I wanted my dreams to come true… But didn't get that I already had everything… And I didn't lose anything," he proudly said, "losing her, I gained knowledge of understanding the word 'love'… And it's… a beautiful word."

"Wow. Plot twist", Sideswipe said as Starscream started approaching the huge crowd, his servos wide open.

"We are all here… just to exist. And it's a gift!" Starscream yelled as he happily looked around, gazing into Autobot's optics, "I'll… I'll go back… go to a time when not everybody's devoid of hope… I'll make sure this scenery never happens again by restraining myself… And my idiotic intentions… I might have caused a war to start, but, oh, I'll end it as well!"

"No. You will not", he heard a deep voice coming from behind him, so he turned around to face a single glowing red eye's look piercing right through his spark. It was the big purple scientist, pointing his gun at him. Starscream knew that even one hit would finish everybody off. His smile vanished as his knees shook from fear.

"Wh-What are you planning to do with that thing…? I'll… I'll stop this once and for all… W-We won't lose, we'll just…"

At this point, the scientist had already fired the gun and Starscream just stopped talking, knowing his plan was over, and in fear, he didn't even close his optics, enabling him to see when the blast was coming closer, it wasn't actually going to hit him. It was going to hit the person in front of the blast.

For some unknown reason, the person wanted to block Shockwave's hit by absorbing the full force of the blast. He jumped right in front of Starscream, so that the blast would never hit him. The rather small figure's chest suddenly got blasted and parts flew from it, eventually revealing a hole in the mech's chest. Starscream's optics widened as he saw what just happened, not knowing what purpose that had and why a person like him would do that at the first place. As the entrepreneur's body reached the ground, crashing his remaining healthy systems, Starscream widened his optics and approached the deadly hurt Decepticon who still had a smug smile on his faceplates, just like he was about to make the deal of his life.

Grimlock and Fixit just stood there aside, unable to get what just happened. In a flash, he disappeared from them, without giving them any sign. The Minicon covered his optics. Bumblebee and Knock Out stopped fighting again and Bumblebee used that moment to push him off, so that he could stare at the marketer's sacrificed body. Windblade widened her optics and got closer to Sideswipe, whose sword fell out of his hand. Seeing that, the two seekers fighting them turned around as well, looking at Starscream.

As the silver mech approached him, the seeker grabbed the mech's shoulders and leaned them at his knees to speak to the mercenary. Swindle's smile intensified.

"Oh, look at that. Isn't that one of my favorite customers…?" he silently asked and coughed.

"Wh… What are you doing? What was the point of that?!"

Swindle showed his bright, uneven dental plates and answered: "Someone had to keep you alive, aren't I right?"

Starscream shook his head: "Why?"

"Heh. You're our future, as it seems… And I'm not letting my business stop just like that. Everyone's got their goals, so… Why not fight for the 'good side', for once…?"

"B-But… Swindle, you don't even really know anyone here and… From all of the Autobots and Decepticons… you?"

"Listen, Screamer. I'm not doing this just for you", he said as his smile started fading, "if I die now, it won't matter, 'cause I know you'll succeed in returning to the past. And then I'll be able to sell my garbage again. And you'll finally pay on time as you'll feel guilty, get it? As for the rest… don't leave 'em behind. They all seem to adore you. Especially that femme of yours", he said and passed out, leaving Starscream confused. Confused, but determined to end this by returning to the time when everything was still simple and deprived from his help.

He stood up again, leaving Swindle's body behind him. The seeker started walking towards Shockwave.

"I am not letting you use the portal. It is to return Megatron to his state of glory! You are not interfering with my plan!"

He fired another shot, but this time, two Cybertronians jumped in front of the slim mech, accidentally bumping into themselves and getting blown away by the blast together. Starscream took a quick glance at them and widened his optics in dread, seeing Thundercracker and Skywarp lying on the floor, steam coming out from the part they were shot in, which was their side.

"Haha… looks like he got there before me…" Thundercracker stated and smiled before passing out.

"Starscream… Save us all, get it…?" Skywarp said and Starscream bit his lip as he didn't have the time to praise his closest fellows for doing something completely off their character. He was extremely proud.

Another shot came towards him, but Smokescreen blocked it by sacrificing himself.

"…I owed you one, right…?"

Another blast came, which Windblade absorbed, much to Sideswipe's terror.

"Make sure to bring us back, hear me, Screamer?"

Starscream suddenly smiled at the femme and continued walking towards the purple mech who was slowly getting scared as the seeker wasn't looking like he was about to stop. He still didn't stop shooting, though.

As another shot came flying towards the silver Decepticon leader whose optics were glowing brightly as he was pacing forward, Sideswipe wanted to leap in front of it, but Bumblebee pushed him aside and let himself absorb the hit, much to Sideswipes dread. The young rebel 'Bot's optics suddenly started to get wet, making him turn away.

"For the greater good", Bumblebee said as he looked up at the seeker, widely smiling before his systems shut down.

After that, Starscream finally got to Shockwave and the scientist wanted to fire one last shot to end the seeker's life, but the seeker suddenly leaped at him and punched him right in the single optic he had. Shockwave put a hand over his optic as it got cracked, and the seeker fired a missile at him.

There was only silence for a moment as everything was full of dust which was slowly spreading across the atmosphere. When the dust parted enough, so that Starscream could clearly see Shockwave's image, he pointed his last missile at him and smugly smiled, waiting from a response from Shockwave. He was expecting some kind of threat or explanation, but nothing came from the lying scientist. He was still just covering his hurt optic.

"Go on. Do it", he suddenly said and Starscream's smile twitched for a second.

"Aren't you going to explain to me why all of this is wrong, or say that I'm making a huge mistake and whatnot? Where is your dignity now, Shockwave…?" he asked as he widely grinned, expecting some kind of response from the weakened purple scientist. But he refused to answer, so Starscream pointed his missile at his chest. Shockwave removed his hand from his optic and looked into the seeker's optics, seeking riddance in them.

"This war has been going between us for far too long… I was the one keeping the hate the Decepticons felt towards the Autobots in their sparks… You are not the faulty Cybertronian… it is my fault completely. I used Soundwave to spy on you, to spy on every last Decepticon so I could bring us all back together, to avenge lord Megatron by annihilating every last Autobot… But I came up with another plan. I came up with the solution to all the struggles the Decepticons were facing. We were lonely, hungry, deprived from freedom and any kind of hope. We were lying in agony, trying to reach out for help. Nobody cared, though. We have been put in stasis cells and were treated like utter trash, as the Autobots took over the planet that was once ours… My only wish was to bring Cybertron back to its former glory… just like it was your wish too, Starscream. I thought we could join our forces and with our combined knowledge and sources, we could bring back what was once ours, but is now lost. Megatron would rule over the planet once again, and we wouldn't have to struggle no more… But I forgot. I forgot that Decepticons aren't the only Cybertronians alive… Please, Starscream, just end it now. I cannot bare those circumstances any longer."

Starscream just stared at him for a while and didn't respond in any way, so Shockwave lowered his head again.

"We are definitely not the ones to rule the planet… This is clear to me now, seeing that my forceful strategy brought only death upon us… I am sorry. Sorry for everything I am done."

Starscream slowly blinked.

"But… if you choose to return to the past now… I will not change. I will forget everything that has happened here, and only you, who will enter the portal, will remember what we all have done here, in the future which, if you choose another way, will completely disappear. All the allies you made, all the changes to the Autobots you made. Everything will be forgotten. So I will not remember my wrongdoings. Only… if you kill me now, and drag me into the past world with yourself. Then, my form will not be able to maintain itself and my physical form will split, and my dead body will absorb the spark of the past. But I will not wake. Do you see where I am going with this?" he looked up at Starscream who was questioning his choices.

"If you do not act now, nothing will change. Everything will turn back just the way it was before."

Starscream suddenly raised his servo and shot the missile upwards, letting it explode in the air. Everyone stared up as he did that, seeing that the missile's power parted the smoke raising, enabling them to actually see the two Decepticons, not just hear. Starscream then looked down at him and smiled.

"If there's one thing I learned, it's that I can change my path. And you… you can go another path it as well", as he said that, he turned away and started walking towards the portal that would lead him back. Soundwave was already standing there, a Ground Bridge appearing next to him as he triggered it. Arcee was already gone, so everything was ready, and Starscream knew just the time he wanted to visit again. As he was walking, he could hear voices cheering on him, wishing him luck. Just before he entered the portal, he looked back at the crowd to look at the Autobots and their state one last time before getting out of their lives.

Strongarm was standing right in the middle of Bumblebee, Windblade and Smokescreen. She looked hopeful. In the back, Starscream realized that the tall young red mech was turned away from his friends, trying to hide his sadness by covering his whole face with his palm. He didn't succeed and Grimlock got next to him, sweeping him up while whining. Fixit was smiling at Swindle and poking his head.

"Let's meet up in the past, ok? Call me!" he cheerfully said.

Starscream sweetly smiled and felt his body vaporizing as he entered the realm of the past. Everything around him suddenly disappeared as well.

* * *

As soon as he came back to his senses, he opened his optics and widely smiled as he realized it functioned. He found himself back _there_. As he saw her sassily standing there in front of him again, full of fear and hate, he cutely smiled. The memories started flooding back.

 _She slowly and carefully approached him, and as she did, she knelt down. She slowly raised her trembling hand and lowered her optic ridges as she was about to touch his shoulder plate._

Starscream shook his head left and right and then got closer to his lying body, smugly smiling as he saw that the body wanted to absorb him as he was standing close to it.

 _Then, she touched his shoulder plate, and as soon she did, she removed her servo from him. She braced, but he didn't respond in any way. Then she lowered an optic ridge and tried again. She put her servo at the exact same position of his shoulder as before, but this time, she didn't remove it. She soon calmed down and took a deep breath again. A second later, she put her other hand at his shoulder plate and tried to turn him around so his head would face the ceiling, not the floor._

 _"Ugh… He's… He's_ _way_ _heavier than he looks like", she complained as she was turning him._

Starscream chuckled.

 _When she finally succeeded after a few unsuccessful tries, she heavily gasped and looked at his scarred face. His optics were tightly closed and his mouth half-opened, showing his, somehow, still bright dental plates. The mech's face didn't look evil, in fact, it looked innocent that way. He had a plain scar under his right optic. His lower lip was cut and hardened energon was on the right part of his faceplate, coming from the top of his helm. She lowered her optic ridges and slowly neared her head to his chest to hear if his spark was still beating. Then, all of a sudden, his claws moved, scratching the floor and his spark began to race. She quickly backed off of him, but stayed kneeling to see if he's going to come to his senses. She was looking at his claws which were slowly clenching into fists, but suddenly, they stopped and completely relaxed. She raised her optic ridges and blinked twice. Then, there was nothing for a cycle. As time passed, she sighed and wanted to check his pulse once again by checking his carotid artery, but as soon she got closer to him, he suddenly widely opened his bright red optics and his pupils shrank. She quickly jumped at her feet in fear of getting hurt. He coughed, closing his optics and then he put his weight at his trembling servos which were full of claw marks and scratches. He firstly didn't seem to notice her, but as she stepped a step closer, he widely opened his optics again and turned his head into her direction, slightly tilting it. He widely opened his mouth and fell to the ground to bow._

 _"Oh, praise the AllSpark, someone came to check on me!" he cutely narrowed his optics from the smile on his faceplate which was addressed to her._

 _She looked left-right to check if it was really meant for her, and as it turned out, it was._

 _"I", she started._

 _"Oh, I simply knew someone would care!" he kept on and compressed his hands, "Though I did not expect you,_ _Arcee_ _", his optics met hers and she widened her bright blue optics as they met his red ones._

 _"Stop it, Starscream; I'm not falling for this", she said and his smile vanished from his faceplates._

 _He coughed again and touched the floor with his claws as he couldn't stay in the position anymore; the energon loss was killing him, slowly, yet painfully._

 _"Arcee… I've been here for a long time… I haven't eaten anything; I have lost more energon than ever before… Couldn't you just look over the fact that I killed Cliffjumper this time?" he asked when he looked into her optics, but soon widened them when he realized that he was talking about it_ _once again._ _He clearly couldn't forget the way she beat him up back then… and if it wasn't for her generosity, he wouldn't be alive right now._

„Wow. I was such an idiot…" Starscream stated as he shook his head again.

 _She showed her dental plates in anger and narrowed her optics._

 _"I'm sorry, I'm sorry", he silently said and crashed at the floor, closing his optics tightly in pain, his voice getting even lower than it was before, "but can't you see that I'm dying…?"_

 _She just continued looking at him, watching his trembling body as he was trying to get up, but he immediately fell at his arms again._

 _"You have to help me! PLEASE!" he shouted and narrowed his optics at her. Then he looked up, his optics widening in a cute way, saying: "You don't not know what the Predacons did to me."_

 _"Wait… Predacons?" she asked and his optic ridges rose as he saw she was getting interested into what happened._

 _"Yes", he heavily gasped and lowered his head again, closing his optics, "they did this… I was defenseless… There was no possible way to dodge the attacks which were coming with brutal force."_

 _She lowered her optic ridges for a second._

 _Just as she meant to call for a Ground Bridge, his claws wrapped around her forearm while he was still kneeling. His optics were widely open and he reminded her at the event again as he said: "You wouldn't leave me here dying… would you?"_

 _She narrowed her optics and forcefully pushed him away, so that he crashed at the floor, loudly yelping. He started to gasp to intake air, groveling back to face her. He couldn't keep his optics open anymore and he knew that if he doesn't get help in a matter of megacycles, he'd pass away in this state. His optic ridges lowered and she could see that his optics' red light was slowly fading. Once again, he raised his head to search for her optics, softly chuckling._

 _Her optics widened and her optic ridges lowered as soon as she saw that his cut lip leaked energon again. He looked down at the floor as he saw that she wasn't going to do anything against his fate._

 _"If this is the fate which was chasing me for such a long time… If this is how my light has to go out… I'm at peace with that", he silently said and his optics glowed brightly as they met hers again, and after that he crashed at the floor, raising the dust off of it. His systems soon shut down. She widened her optics and kneeled down to look at his scarred face once again._

 _"Ultra Magnus", she silently said, and with difficulty in her spark continued, "I need a Ground Bridge and some assistance. Quickly."_

He quickly approached the scratched version of his body and everything went white for a second. He suddenly woke up lying on the floor in pain, loudly coughing. The wonderful blue femme looked at him in fear as she realized that he was still conscious, removing her fingers from her comm. link.

Starscream's optics met hers and he just stared for a moment, having mixed feelings in his spark. As he was looking at her id an odd way, the two-wheeler lowered her optic ridges, but smirked as she saw that Starscream was looking at her in an adorable fashion.

"Is... something the matter…?" she asked and Starscream dumbly smiled as he remembered that she didn't know anything about their affair. He just shook his head and managed to stand up at his trembling legs. he then hit himself to the wall, trying to bend his wings in the right way.

"What are you doing? I thought you were hurt!" the blue femme loudly asked and spread her servos like she wanted to stop him from doing any more damage to his body. Starscream couldn't keep a straight face as he saw that she cared anyways.

"Oh… I am," he said and slowly got closer to her, making her flinch, "but… I'm not in need of any assistance. So call your team and tell them I said hi."

As he said that, she half-opened her mouth. He just started walking towards the big hole in the wall, looking down.

"What do you mean…? You were just lying there unconscious a few cycles ago!" Arcee kept questioning and he chuckled.

"Oh, dearest Arcee… If you only knew what I know…" he said and sweetly smiled while looking down the huge building. He didn't want her to see the sadness in his optics though, as he felt terrible for not being so close to her anymore. It was for the best to stay away from her, though.

"…Did you have some enlightenment while being unconscious for ten seconds, or something?" she asked and he smiled and turned back to see her worried expression. Seeing his smile in an innocent way at her made her look away as she felt awkward.

"I wouldn't rule it out", he said and the small femme approached him, much to his surprise. She stepped right next to him, looking down the hole as well. After a few seconds, she raised her head to look at him.

"Are you sure you're fine? I think you might have hit your head, or…"

"I'm fine… But you make sure you are, ok?" he asked of her and she suddenly blushed, hearing such a sentence from her enemy was beyond her understanding. He smiled and grabbed her tiny servo, gently. She stared right into his optics.

"See you again, one day…" he said, bended to reach her height and gently kissed her hand. After that, he looked up at her surprised face and beautiful optics. He felt his optics wet up as he remembered the time they were still Spark Mates, but he was happy enough that she was alive and well. He'd give his life so that she'd be alive and well, after all.

"I promise", he added while gaping into her optics, trying to find his way back.

"I…" she tried to say something, but the mech suddenly released her, transformed and flew away right at her sight. The femme stared for a few seconds at his leaving figure before smugly smiling and leaning at the wall. The sky was dark and full of stars, like it always was. She then reached her comm. link.

"Arcee to base."

" _Base here. What is it, Arcee?"_

"The assistance won't be necessary…"

" _Why not…?"_

"Well… he just took off, on his own."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Oh, but don't worry…" she added and looked at her hand her kissed before. She was still a little baffled because of back, "He'll return."

As she said that, she turned the link off and stayed there for another megacycle, gazing up at the stars and wondering why the mech kissed her hand. She was certain she'd find out one day. But till then, she'd just have to stare up at the stars and hope he'd return to tell her.

* * *

~The End...?~

* * *

Heh. Not yet...?


End file.
